LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  Of 
CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIC6O 


H-H 
K'l 


UNIVERSITY  TSF  CALIFORNIA 
LA  JOLLA. 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS 
OF   SOCIETY 


THE     ^^~"~ 
PHYSICAL   BASIS 
OF  SOCIETY 


BY 

CARL  KELSEY,  Pn.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF    SOCIOLOGY,   UNIVERSITY   OF   PENNSYLVANIA 


D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1916 


L  t  B  *f  A  R  Y 
sc»-  .   ,  e-T  i  r  u  T  i  o  N 


UNJVErtSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LA  JOLLA.  CALIFORNIA 


COPTHIGHT,    1916,   BT 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PKEFACE 

For  many  years  the  writer  has  been  in  the  habit  of 
beginning  his  University  courses  in  Sociology  by  briefly 
sketching  the  physical  background  of  life,  the  relation  of 
the  organism  to  its  environment,  the  question  of  heredity, 
and  the  general  idea  of  evolution  as  applied  to  human 
beings  and  the  development  of  social  theory.  Because  of 
the  interest  shown  by  his  classes  he  has  come  to  believe 
that  there  is  perhaps  a  larger  group  which  would  welcome 
the  opportunity  to  survey  this  field  but  which  will  not 
spend  the  time  to  gather  the  evidence  which  now  exists  in 
widely  scattered  volumes. 

The  real  plagiarist  is  not  the  one  who  accidentally  or 
willfully  forgets  to  put  quotation  marks  about  given  group- 
ings of  words,  but  he  who  gives  the  impression  that  the 
ideas  conveyed  are  the  result  of  his  own  thought-processes. 
I  make  no  pretense  to  originality.  I  cannot  remember 
the  sources  of  many  of  my  ideas,  though  I  have  tried  to 
give  due  credit.  It  will  probably  be  found  that  whatever 
is  original  is  not  good  and  whatever  is  good  is  not  original. 
In  reality  I  have  sought  to  make  accessible  the  best  of 
modern  thought  on  the  questions  involved  even  though 
this  requires  in  some  cases  the  presentation  of  conflicting 
views.  I  have  tried  also  to  indicate  the  limits  of  present 
knowledge  and  to  point  out  the  problems  requiring  further 
investigation  before  we  can  be  very  positive  of  our  posi- 
tions. I  cannot  even  congratulate  myself  that  I  am  ac- 
quainted with  all  the  work  that  has  been  done  and  I  have 
doubtless  omitted  much  that  should  be  included.  More- 


vi  PREFACE 

over,  ere  these  pages  are  printed  some  investigator  will 
probably  have  gotten  new  evidence  of  importance. 

There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  we  are  approach- 
ing the  time  when  a  larger  and  truer  viewpoint  with 
reference  to  man  and  his  welfare  is  possible.  The  chemist 
is  no  longer  solely  concerned  with  the  study  of  the  prop- 
erties of  matter  and  its  compounds  but  is  interested  in  the 
results  of  his  studies  on  society ;  the  ethnologist  no  longer 
merely  makes  collections  of  curiosities  of  savage  tribes, 
but  seeks  to  explain  the  course  of  social  evolution;  the 
historian  no  longer  enthuses  over  dates  and  names,  but 
seeks  to  trace  the  forces  at  work  in  shaping  societies ;  the 
psychologist  is  turning  from  the  description  of  mental 
phenomena  to  a  consideration  of  human  conduct.  May 
we  not  anticipate  sooner  or  later  the  appearance  of  the 
man  who  will  do  for  the  present  century  what  Spencer 
sought  with  considerable  success  to  do  for  the  last,  namely, 
correlate  existing  knowledge  and  show  its  bearing  on  man 
and  his  institutions  ?  I  doubt  if  that  man  is  now  living, 
or,  at  least,  has  reached  maturity,  but  he  is  sure  to  come, 
for  after  all  life  is  a  unity  and  human  welfare  our  great- 
est concern.  If  in  any  small  way  I  have  helped  to  sug- 
gest that  unity  and  the  desirability  of  such  correlation  I 
am  well  content. 

Finally,  I  hope  that  I  have  succeeded  in  conveying  the 
thought  of  the  various  sections  without  undue  use  of  tech- 
nical terms.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  the  general  reader 
may  find  it  worth  while  and  at  the  same  time  that  it  may 
prove  useful  in  clubs  and  classes  which  expect  to  make 
more  detailed  studies  of  some  of  the  questions  suggested 
in  the  later  chapters. 

Barring  a  few  exceptions  books  only  are  included  in  the 
bibliography.  It  seldom  happens  that  a  book  is  twice 


PREFACE  vii 

listed  though  many  of  them  cover  the  discussion  of  sev- 
eral chapters. 

In  undertaking  such  a  study  a  writer  has  his  choice  of 
two  methods.  He  may  undertake  to  tell  the  story  in  his 
own  words  or  may  allow  the  authorities  to  speak  for  them- 
selves. The  first  method  makes  the  reading  somewhat 
easier.  Inasmuch  as  no  one  can  claim  to  have  first  hand 
information  on  so  many  subjects  the  reader  is  likely  to 
wonder  if  the  facts  are  as  represented.  I  have  preferred 
the  second  method,  therefore,  and  have  quoted  freely  from 
the  best  works  known  to  me.  Whenever  possible  I  have 
drawn  freely  from  the  books  of  special  value.  Thus  some 
pages  of  Chapter  IV  have  been  taken  almost  verbatim 
from  the  monumental  work  of  A.  D.  White,  "  The  Warfare 
of  Science  with  Theology." 

Special  permission  has  been  received  from  the  following 
authors  and  publishers  for  quotations  taken  from  works 
indicated : 

DEXTER,  E.  G.    Weather  Influences.    Macmillan  Company. 
WHITE,  ANDREW  D.    Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology.    D. 

Appleton  and  Co. 

CHAPIN,  F.  STUART.    Social  Evolution.    The  Century  Co. 
SHELFORD,  V.  E.    Animal  Communities  in  Temperate  America. 

Press  of  Chicago  University. 
HUNTINGTON,    ELLSWORTH.    Civilization    and    Climate.    Yale 

University  Press. 

CATTELL,  J.  McKEEN.    Article  in  The  Independent,  Sept.  27, 
1915. 

So  many  friends  have  helped  me  in  so  many  ways  that 
detailed  statement  is  impossible.  To  them  I  owe  the  pos- 
sibility of  preparing  these  pages  for  the  printer,  and  their 
assistance  is  gratefully  acknowledged. 

GAEL,  KELSET. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.  EARTH  AND  MAN 1 

Cosmic  Evolution.  The  properties  of  matter  which 
make  life  possible.  How  nature  controls  organisms. 
The  conception  of  the  organism  as  a  machine ;  the  wel- 
fare of  the  whole  turning  on  the  proper  functioning  of 
each  part.  Adaptation.  Effects  of  air,  water,  heat, 
light  on  the  reproduction,  growth  and  distribution  of 
organisms.  Influence  of  the  physical  world  on  man :  1. 
Distribution  and  migration;  2.  Occupation;  3.  Phys- 
ical characteristics;  4.  Physiological  effects;  5.  Psy- 
chical effects.  Favorable  and  unfavorable  climates. 
The  rhythm  of  nature. 

II.  MUTUAL  AID  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  EXISTENCE      .     .51 

The  interdependence  of  all  forms  of  life.  The  serv- 
ices rendered  to  animals  and  man  by  bacteria  and 
plants.  The  fixing  of  nitrogen.  The  production  of 
food.  Complex  series  of  interrelations  in  the  animal 
world  reaching  from  the  lowest  to  highest  forms.  An- 
imal communities.  Ecology.  Mutual  aid.  The  rapid 
possible  increase  of  lower  forms  through  reproduction. 
The  fairly  stationary  total  amount  of  life.  The  strug- 
gle for  existence.  The  result  of  mutual  aid  and  the 
struggle  for  existence  is  a  balance.  This  balance  easily 
upset  by  man :  (a)  by  the  cultivation  of  fields  and  cut- 
ting of  forests ;  (b)  by  the  introduction  of  new  types  of 
cultivated  plants  and  domestic  animals;  (c)  the  acci- 
dental importation  of  pests ;  (d)  by  the  careless  destruc- 
tion of  birds  or  other  animal  friends.  Illustrations 
from  recent  changes  in  America.  Government  regula- 
tion of  importation  and  transportation  of  plants  and 
animals  and  of  killing  of  migratory  birds.  The  neces- 
sity of  an  intelligent  attitude  towards  other  forms  of 
life. 

ix 


i  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAQI 

III.  THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE 97 

Man's  position  due  entirely  to  his  ability  to  utilize 
facilities  offered  by  nature.  Civilization  is  based  on 
control.  Control  —  the  possibility  of  directing  nature. 

1.  Control  of  natural  resources  and  forces.    Primitive 
inventions  extended  man's  powers  in  time  or  space. 
The  bow  and  arrow.    The  art  of  fire-making.    Discov- 
ery   and   use   of   metals,    coal,    iron    and    electricity. 
Rapid  growth  of  manufacture.    Synthetic  chemistry. 

2.  The  control  of  plants  and  animals.    Discovery  and 
cultivation    of   plants.    Origin    of    cultivated   plants. 
Development  of  new  types.    Domestication  of  animals. 
Relation  of  domestic  animals  to  civilization.    The  be- 
ginnings of  the  care  of  fish,  oysters  and  lobsters. 

"  3.  The  control  of  contagious  diseases.  Recent  dis- 
coveries of  the  causes  of  disease  and  methods  by  which 
it  is  spread.  A  sketch  of  the  warfare  against  tuber- 
culosis, small-pox,  cancer.  The  outlook.  Tests  of 
control  in  man's  health  and  length  of  life.  The 
steadily  increasing  span  of  life. 

IV.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 140 

Comparison  of  speculation  and  research.  Scientific 
work  of  the  ancient  world.  The  ages  of  speculation. 
Gradual  growth  of  a  concept  of  evolution  as  opposed 
to  a  series  of  special  creations.  The  work  of  Lin- 
naeus, Buffon,  Lamarck.  The  culmination  in  Darwin 
and  Wallace.  The  acceptance  of  evolution  by  intelli- 
gent men.  Arguments  for  natural  selection.  The  re- 
lation of  man  to  the  lower  animals.  Some  unsolved 
problems. 

V.  HEREDITY 191 

A  summary  of  existing  information  in  three  fields: 
(a)  Cytology  —  the  study  of  the  cell.  Every  organ- 
ism begins  as  a  single  cell.  The  discovery  of  the  chro- 
mosomes ;  their  part  in  heredity.  A  survey  of  the  work 
of  Mendel  and  his  emphasis  on  "  unit  characters " ; 
"  Mendelian  Laws."  DeVries  and  his  idea  of  "  Muta- 
tion " ;  Weismann  and  his  denial  of  the  inheritance  of 


CONTENTS  ri 

CHAPTER 

"acquired  characters."    Eecent  discoveries.    The  de-** 
termination  of  sex. 

(b)  Experimental  breeding. 

(c)  Statistical  methods. 

The  difference  between  changes  in  germ  and  body 
cells.  The  uses  of  the  word  "heredity." 

VI.    HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  ......  .  233 

The  folly  of  attempting  to  compare  two  essentials. 
The  real  question  is  to  determine  what  we  get  via  the 
road  of  heredity,  what  from  the  environment.  The 
inheritance  of  physical  traits  such  as  dwarfism,  deaf- 
mutism,  hemophilia,  classification  of  human  beings 
on  basis  of  mental  powers.  Feeble-minded,  normal, 
genius.  Evidence  as  to  share  played  by  heredity  and 
environment  in  reproducing  these  types.  The  relation 
of  genius  and  insanity.  The  frequency  of  genius. 
Evidence  that  desirable  traits  are  inherited.  Illustra- 
tions from  royal  families  of  Europe.  The  role  of  cus- 
tom and  law  in  controlling  marriage.  Negative 
eugenics  —  the  attempt  to  stop  the  reproduction  of  the 
unfit.  Positive  eugenics  —  the  attempt  to  improve  the 
race  stock  by  greater  care  and  selection  in  marriage. 


VTI.    KACE  DIFFERENCES 276 

The  physical  differences  between  groups  of  men. 
Comparison  of  color  of  hair,  eyes  and  skin.  Stature, 
head  forms.  The  study  of  brain  weights.  The  attempt 
to  find  correlations  between  physical  characteristics  and 
civilization  or  the  possibility  thereof.  Difficulty  of 
finding  a  "  pure  race."  Evidence  that  all  great  civiliza- 
tions have  been  made  up  of  mixed  peoples.  The  present 
population  of  Europe  and  America.  The  difficulty  of 
determining  racial  superiority  or  inferiority.  Good 
and  bad  results  of  intermixture  of  races.  The  con- 
fusion of  physical  and  social  questions. 

Various  suggested  classifications  of  the  human  race, 
from  Linnaeus  to  Giddings. 


xii  CONTENTS 

OHAPTKB  PAGI 

VIII.    SEX  DIFFERENCES 311 

Appearance  of  sex  in  the  organic  world.  Its  ap- 
parent value.  Observed  differences  between  the  human 
sexes  in  rate  of  growth,  size,  proportions,  brain  weights. 
Physiological  differences.  Alleged  bearing  of  these 
facts  on  the  activities  of  sex.  Is  one  sex  superior? 
The  desirability  of  recognizing  sex  differences.  Sum- 
mary. 

IX.    THE  INFLUENCES  OF  SOCIETY  UPON  POPULATION    .     .  331 

The  fertility  of  different  stocks.  The  falling  birth- 
rate. Influence  of  medical  skill,  changed  industrial 
life,  immigration,  celibacy,  disease,  contraceptive 
measures  in  restricting  reproduction.  Effect  on  human 
physical  evolution  of  inventions,  surgical  skill,  war, 
religion,  charity,  social  castes,  industry,  etc.  Is  inven- 
tion checking  favorable  variation  and  creating  an 
artificial  rather  than  a  natural  condition?  Is  science 
and  philanthropy  preserving  unfavorable  types  which 
tend  to  reproduce  faster  than  the  superior  and  will  in 
time,  therefore,  drive  out  the  better?  Have  social  ar- 
rangements destroyed  the  struggle  for  existence  on 
which  progress  depends?  Is  civilization  destroying 
itself?  Does  social  evolution  unfavorably  affect  pop- 
ulation ?  Need  of  new  ideals. 

X.  SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS 363 

Belief  and  knowledge.  The  rise  of  customs.  Con- 
flicting moralities.  Origin  of  social  institutions 
through  desire  to  regulate  human  conduct.  Reality  of 
the  social  environment.  Personal  rights.  Institutions 
not  always  beneficial.  Changing  conditions  compel  re- 
adjustments. Change  is  dangerous.  Most  important 
results  not  always  expected  or  desired.  The  conserva- 
tive versus  the  radical 

XI.  THE  NATURE  OF  PROGRESS 372 

Human  nature  the  same  in  all  ages.  Progress  de- 
pends on  intellectual  development.  Difficulty  of  main- 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  PAO« 

taining  high  intellectual  standards.  The  conception  of 
social  evolution.  The  organic  theory  of  society. 
Spencer.  The  newer  attitude  of  Sumner  and  Keller. 
Social  Darwinism. 

Theories  to  account  for  the  rise  and  downfall  of  great 
civilizations.  Exact  answers  cannot  be  given.  Older 
emphasis  on  personal  virtues.  Newer  emphasis  on 
social  virtues.  Certain  tests  of  fitness  of  a  state  to 
survive.  Selection  of  right  crimes.  The  degree  of 
protection  given  the  bodies  and  lives  of  citizens.  The 
education  of  children.  The  elimination  of  the  unfit. 
The  ability  to  readjust  to  new  conditions.  Crystalliza- 
tion of  institutions.  Neither  race  nor  environment 
alone  account  for  civilization.  The  failure  of  panaceas. 

,397 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTBATIONS 

PAGE 

Annual  march  of  temperature  in  continental  and  marine 

climates 16 

Comparison  of  weather  conditions 37 

Distribution  of  human  energy  on  the  basis  of  climate    .     .  41 

Food  relations  of  aquatic  animals 59 

Mortality  yellow  fever  —  Havana 136 

Deaths  from  tuberculosis  and  cancer 141 

Continuous  variation 199 

Discontinuous  variation 199 

Color  inheritance  in  guinea  pigs 201 

Suggested  explanation  of  color  inheritance  in  guinea  pigs  .  204 

Diagram  of  sex -limited  inheritance 210 

The  relations  between  successive  generations 220 

The  inheritance  of  brachydactylism 235 

The  inheritance  of  polydactylism 236 

Inheritance  of  dwarfism 236 

Inheritance  of  deaf-mutism 237 

Inheritance  of  hemophilia 238 

The  Kallikak  family 246 

Inheritance  of  feeble-mindedness 248 

Inheritance  of  feeble-mindedness 249 

Contrast  in  children 250 

Neurotic  inheritance 252 

Inheritance  of  insanity 253 

The  inheritance  of  longevity 255 

Inheritance  of  great  ability 259 

xv 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTKATIONS 

PAGI 

Inheritance  of  low  ability 260 

Inheritance  of  ability 261 

Birth,  death  and  marriage  rates,  England  and  Wales,  1876- 
1911 332 

The  families  of  461  leading  American  scientific  men     .     .  342 
The  causes  of  death  in  three  wars 346 

Increase  in  suicide  and  homicide  in  registration  area  of 
U.   S .348 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS 
OF  SOCIETY 


BTOLOGICAU 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF 
SOCIETY 

CHAPTER  I 
EAETH  AND  MAN 

In  the  year  1610  Galileo,  using  his  newly  made  tele- 
scope whose  lenses  were  smaller  than  those  in  our  spec- 
tacles, began  his  study  of  Jupiter  and  was  finally  able  to 
prove  the  theory  of  Copernicus  and  to  show  that  the 
earth  revolved  about  the  sun.  Up  to  that  time  the  earth 
had  been  considered  the  center  of  the  universe  with  the 
sun  and  stars  revolving  about  it.  Centuries  before  man 
had  begun  to  count  the  stars  and  give  them  names  but 
he  little  appreciated  the  size  of  his  task.  In  1914  the 
Royal  Observatory  of  Greenwich  calculated  that  the  stars 
now  known  aggregate  some  1,600,000,000,  of  which 
3,000  or  4,000  are  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  Our  minds 
cannot  grasp  such  numbers  for  they  are  greater  than 
the  total  of  minutes  since  the  birth  of  Christ. 

These  stars  may  be  classified  on  the  basis  of  the  degree 
of  heat.  In  the  hottest,  like  two  gaseous  stars  in  the 
constellation  of  Argo,  the  spectrum  shows  lines  belong- 
ing to  no  known  element  but  bearing  such  relation  to 
hydrogen  that  it  is  supposed  to  be  a  precursor  thereof; 
hence  these  are  called  Protohydrogen  stars.  Helium  is 
also  present  with  hints  of  magnesium  and  calcium.  In 
the  helium-gas  stars  (Taurus,  Algol)  helium  is -prominent 

1 


2  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

along  with  hydrogen,  while  carbon,  oxygen  and  nitrogen 
can  be  detected.  The  Protometallic  stars  (Riegel,  Sirius) 
show  such  metals  as  iron,  copper  and  calcium.  The 
Metallic  stars  (Aldebaran,  Arcturus,  Sun)  show  the  com- 
mon metals  and  the  proto-lines  disappear,  while  the  coolest 
groups  have  fluted  spectra  or,  in  other  words,  are  too 
cool  to  show  the  characteristic  lines  of  their  elements. 
This  same  gradation  can  be  produced  under  high  pres- 
sure by  electricity,  and  thus  a  glimpse  can  be  had  in 
the  laboratory  of  the  process  of  world-making.  Watery 
vapors  appear  and  on  the  planets  bodies  of  snow  and  water 
are  found. 

It  is  our  belief  that  the  earth  was  once  a  molten  mass 
whose  surface  has  gradually  cooled,  and  that  this  process 
left  in  the  air  and  at  the  surface  the  materials  of  which 
organic  beings  are  composed  and  thus  prepared  the  basis 
for  life.  We  must  avoid  the  danger  of  assuming  that 
this  gradual  cooling  has  been  steady  or  uninterrupted. 
We  know  that  North  America  went  through  several 
glacial  periods  when  the  temperature  was  much  lower 
than  that  of  today.  We  do  not  know  what  conditions 
are  at  the  center  of  the  earth,  for  our  deepest  borings 
have  not  carried  us  two  miles  below  the  surface. 

In  1661  Boyle  suggested  in  his  "  Skeptical  Chymist " 
that  underlying  matter  in  all  its  forms  were  minute 
units  by  whose  aggregation  the  masses  were  formed.  By 
the  first  of  the  nineteenth  century  this  idea  was  developed 
into  the  atomic  theory  by  the  school  teacher  Dalton  to 
whom  we  are  also  indebted  for  our  system  of  naming 
chemical  compounds.  For  countless  ages  simple  sub- 
stances like  copper,  silver,  gold  and  iron  had  been  known 
but  that  there  were  really  only  a  small  number  of  sub- 
stances on 'earth  was  not  realized.  In  1774  Priestly  and 


EAETH  AND  MAN  3 

Scheel  discovered  oxygen.  By  the  end  of  the  century 
Cavendish  had  resolved  water  into  its  component  parts. 
A  few  years  later  Davy,  experimenting  with  his  electric 
battery,  discovered  that  all  the  common  substances  known 
as  "  earths  "  were  compounds  containing  oxygen.  Thence- 
forth there  was  a  steady  series  of  discoveries  of  elements 
whose  qualities  were  noted  and  whose  atomic  weights  it 
proved  possible  to  determine.  In  1868,  by  using  the 
spectroscope,  Johannsen  of  Paris  found  in  the  sun  an 
unknown  substance  which  he  called  helium  and  in  1895 
Ramsey  was  able  to  show  its  presence  on  earth.  The 
most  striking  of  these  discoveries  was  probably  that  of 
radium  in  1898  by  Madame  Curie. 

There  are  listed  today  some  eighty-three  elements  which, 
so  far  as  we  can  tell,  are  distinct.  Nearly  99  per 
cent  of  the  earth's  surface  including  water  (as  the  fol- 
lowing table  shows)  is  made  up  of  eight  of  these,  no 
other  element  contributing  one  per  cent.  Even  such  ex- 
tremely important  substances  as  hydrogen  and  carbon 
form  only  .17  per  cent  and  .12  per  cent,  respectively. 

Oxygen    47.02  per  cent 

Silicon    28.06 

Aluminum  8.16 

Iron    4.64 

Calcium   3.50 

Sodium    2.63 

Magnesium    2.62 

Potassium   2.32 

98.95  per  cent 

Some  of  the  elements,  like  gold,  are  very  passive  and 
are  seldom  found  in  combination  with  others.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  60  per  cent  of  known  inorganic  com- 
pounds contain  oxygen;  some  30  per  cent,  hydrogen. 
Many  of  these  compounds  possess  very  different  proper- 
ties from  those  held  by  their  constituent  elements,  and 


4  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

may  themselves  enter  as  units  into  more  complex  group- 
ings. Some  of  the  elements  have  not  been  found  in 
nature  save  as  compounds  and  man  has  reduced  them  in 
his  laboratory.  Aluminum,  first  produced  in  1827,  has 
become  commercially  important;  while  the  metal  calcium 
remains  merely  a  curiosity.  In  like  manner  many  pos- 
sible compounds,  not  found  on  earth,  have  been  made  by 
the  chemist.  These  elements  existing  throughout  the 
universe,  wherever  found  so  far  as  we  know,  possess  the 
same  qualities  and  are  governed  by  the  same  laws.  Thus 
the  earth  is  revealed  to  us  as  made  out  of  the  same  "  world 
stuff"  as  the  planets  and  the  suns.  We  know  too  that 
these  elements  (depending  on  temperature  and  pressure) 
assume  solid,  liquid  or  gaseous  forms. 

The  discovery  of  the  radio-active  substances  suggests 
that  there  has  been  an  evolution  of  the  elements  and  the 
belief  is  growing  that  they  are  perhaps  but  different  forms 
of  some  common  basic  material.  Kadium  appears  to  have 
been  derived  from  uranium  and  seems  itself  to  change 
into  helium,  and  there  is  suspicion  that  the  final  product 
is  lead.  The  atomic  weight  of  the  elements  can  be  ar- 
ranged in  a  complex  series  in  a  way  that  indicates  that 
there  must  be  some  relationship.  In  some  instances  the 
absence  of  an  element  filling  a  given  niche  in  the  series 
has  resulted  in  its  discovery.  We  are  beginning  to  speak 
of  "  electrons "  and  "  ions  "  and  to  realize  that  matter 
is  not  the  inert  thing  we  have  thought  it  to  be.  Radium 
gives  off  three  classes  of  rays.  The  alpha  rays  seem  to 
be  minute  bodies,  positively  electrified,  which  travel  some 
20,000  miles  a  second  and  may  be  stopped  by  a  sheet  of 
aluminum  1/500  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The  beta  rays 
are  negatively  electrified,  travel  10,000  miles  a  second, 
and  are  stopped  by  a  sheet  of  aluminum  1/25  of  an 


EAETH  AND  MAN  5 

inch  thick;  while  the  gamma  rays,  apparently  the  same 
as  X-rays,  will  pierce  a  plate  of  aluminum  up  to  twenty 
inches  or  take  a  photograph  through  a  foot  of  iron.  Such 
facts  are  compelling  us  to  wonder  if  force  as  well  as  sub- 
stance is  inherent  in  the  concept  of  matter,  and  to  realize 
that  our  chemical  formulae  do  not  fully  describe  the  vari- 
ous substances. 

With  the  growth  of  knowledge  with  reference  to  matter 
the  physicist  has  discovered  that  those  elements  or  com- 
pounds which  enter  largely  into  the  structure  of  living 
organisms  are  not  merely  those  whose  properties  enable 
them  to  maintain  life  but  are  the  only  ones  possessing 
these  properties.  He  emphasizes,  therefore,  the  recip- 
rocal nature  of  the  relationship  between  the  physical 
environment  and  the  organism.  Before  considering  this 
"  fitness  of  the  environment "  we  must  note  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  living  organisms. 

In  earlier  days  life  was  considered  as  something  en- 
tirely apart  from  matter,  an  outside  spirit  temporarily 
living  in  a  material  body;  just  as  light  and  heat  were 
interpreted  as  occult  manifestations  of  some  spirit.  A 
great  gulf  existed  at  that  time  between  organic  and  in- 
organic chemistry.  In  1828  Woehler  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing urea  from  ammonium  cyanate ;  in  other  words, 
synthetically  created  an  organic  compound  up  to  that 
time  known  only  as  the  product  of  living  organisms. 
Today  the  chemist  can  create  dozens  of  such  compounds 
and  the  gulf  between  organic  and  inorganic  is  bridged 
even  though  we  do  not  understand  life  itself.  Body  as 
well  as  spirit  is  inherent  in  the  concept  of  life  on  earth 
and  the  existence  and  phenomena  of  living  beings  de- 
pend on  the  properties  of  matter,  rather  than  on  so-called 
"  vital  principles." 


6  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

It  is  necessary  then  to  think  of  the  organism  as  an 
engine,  made  up  of  a  multitude  of  parts,  each  having  its 
own  functions  and  the  welfare  of  the  whole  depending 
on  the  proper  functioning  of  each  part.  The  foodstuffs 
must  be  transformed  by  a  process  of  combustion  (which 
we  call  digestion)  into  flesh,  bone  and  energy.  In  this 
process  there  is  the  most  wonderful  cooperation  between 
the  different  parts  of  the  body.  Even  some  very  small 
organs,  such  as  the  ductless  glands,  until  recently  con- 
sidered as  of  little  importance,  are  now  known  to  be  in- 
dispensable. Thus  the  suprarenals,  two  glands  not  over 
one  ounce  in  weight,  situated  above  the  kidneys,  secrete 
adrenalin,  a  powerful  constrictive  having  great  influence 
on  the  arteries.  Cretinism  is  produced  by  the  nonfunc- 
tioning  of  the  thyroids.  Hypertrophy  of  the  pituitary 
leads  to  giantism.  The  welfare  of  the  whole  body  de- 
pends upon  the  performance  of  its  own  task  by  each 
portion  thereof.  That  this  is  possible  is  due  to  the  prop- 
erties of  certain  compounds  soon  to  be  considered.  We 
are  able  to  see  because  the  lens  of  the  eye  focuses  the 
rays  of  light  upon  the  retinal  red  and  takes  a  picture, 
just  as  does  the  camera,  which  in  some  mysterious  and 
wonderful  fashion  is  recorded  and  filed  in  the  brain. 
Life  then  may  be  conceived  of  as  a  series  of  chemical 
changes.  In  order  that  there  may  be  permanency  of  the 
body  there  must  be  certain  relatively  unchanging  portions ; 
in  order  that  new  experiences  may  be  had  there  must  be 
instant  and  appropriate  response  to  new  conditions  and 
stimuli. 

On  the  earth  today  wherever  and  whenever  conditions 
are  favorable,  there  is  life.  The  lowest  forms  are  found 
either  in  water  or  under  moist  surroundings.  Where 
the  air  is  dryest  the  least  life  exists.  If  this  has  always 


been  so  we  must  assume  that  when  the  temperature  of 
water  on  the  cooling  earth  dropped  below  the  boiling 
point,  212°,  the  lowest  forms  appeared.  The  hydrocarbon 
group  of  compounds  is  then  the  first  to  attract  our  at- 
tention. 

Pure  air  is  composed  of  79  parts  nitrogen,  21  of 
oxygen  and  about  .03  per  cent  of  carbon  dioxid  with 
insignificant  traces  of  argon,  metargon,  krypton  and  neon. 
Pure  water  is  made  of  two  parts  hydrogen  to  one  of 
oxygen.  The  human  body  contains  carbon,  13.5  per  cent; 
hydrogen,  9.1  per  cent;  oxygen,  72  per  cent;  nitrogen, 
2.5  per  cent;  phosphorus,  1.15  per  cent;  sodium,  0.1 
per  cent;  calcium,  1.3  per  cent;  magnesium,  0.001  per 
cent ;  iron,  0.01  per  cent  and  traces  of  silicon  and  fluorin. 
Plants  are  composed  largely  of  oxygen,  hydrogen  and 
carbon. 

We  may  consider  the  maintenance  of  a  fairly  fixed 
temperature  as  one  of  the  first  conditions  of  life.  Some 
of  the  bacteria  live  and  multiply  in  water  at  a  temperature 
of  32°,  others  prosper  at  170°.  Plants  have  their  stand- 
ard temperature  which  falls  some  2  or  3°  at  night.  The 
normal  temperature  of  the  human  body  is  slightly  above 
98°,  being  lower  at  night  and  lowest  in  early  morning 
hours.  Muscular  exertion  raises  the  temperature  about 
one  degree.  If  the  temperature  rises  to  105°  we  have  a 
dangerous  fever;  if  it  is  depressed  to  93°  the  result  is 
probably  death.  We  perish  from  cold  long  before  the 
body  is  actually  frozen.  To  maintain  this  temperature 
a  large  part  of  the  fats  and  carbohydrates  in  the  food  is 
burned  (oxidized)  within  the  body.  Here  the  importance 
of  water  appears.  By  weight  some  68  per  cent  of  the 
body  is  water.  An  adult  at  rest  weighing  165  pounds 
produces  some  2400  calories  (heat  units)  daily,  enough 


8  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  body  57°.  If  the  body- 
were  built  of  most  substances,  it  would  raise  the  tempera- 
ture 180°  to  200°.  Man  loses,  therefore,  about'  1.5 
calories  per  kilo  per  hour.  Some  of  the  elements  in  the 
body,  moreover,  would  undergo  marked  changes  if  the 
temperature  were  much  higher  than  it  is.  Our  clothing 
does  not  give  heat  to  the  body,  and  is  a  better  conductor 
of  heat  than  air.  It  is  chiefly  of  value  because  it  keeps 
a  thin  sheet  of  air  next  to  the  body. 

Of  all  known  substances,  water  is  best  fitted  to  main- 
tain an  even  temperature.  Its  specific  heat  is  very  high, 
being  exceeded  only  by  hydrogen  and  ammonia.  If 
atomic  weight  is  considered  in  addition,  it  stands  at  the 
top  of  the  list.  The  freezing  point  of  water  is  perhaps 
100°  higher  than  that  of  the  average  substance.  This 
means  that  the  latent  heat  of  water  is  very  high,  being 
surpassed  only  by  ammonia.  Thanks  to  the  expansion 
that  occurs  when  ice  forms,  the  actual  freezing  of  more 
than  the  surface  of  a  body  of  water  is  practically  impos- 
sible. Water  evaporates  readily.  It  is  estimated  that 
at  the  equator  some  six  and  a  half  feet  of  water  are  taken 
yearly  from  the  surface  of  the  ocean.  This  spreads  over 
the  earth  cooling  the  tropics  and  warming  other  regions. 
In  these  'regards  the  only  rival  again  is  ammonia,  but  no- 
where in  nature  is  this  found  in  large  amounts.  Edison 
states  that  the  greatest  discovery  of  the  year  1913  was 
that  of  the  method  of  producing  ammonia  directly  from 
hydrogen  and  carbon.  Water  is  a  splendid  solvent.  It 
thus  provides  opportunity  for  many  of  the  combinations 
necessary  to  life.  Its  surface  tension  (75),  higher  than 
any  other  substance  save  mercury  (436),  is  very  signifi- 
cant in  view  of  capillary  action  enabling  it  to  penetrate 


EAETH  AND  MAN  9 

the  earth  and  the  cells  of  organisms.  Altogether,  there- 
fore, water  seems  to  possess  unique  qualifications. 

Another  element  of  utmost  importance  to  living  organ- 
isms is  carbon  although  this  forms  only  .03  per  cent  by 
volume  of  the  atmosphere  and  .01  per  cent  by  weight 
of  water.  It  is  stated  that  over  100,000  compounds  of 
carbon  are  now  known.  Some  of  these  are  very  simple 
like  carbonic  acid  (CO2)  ;  others  are  so  complex  that  a 
line  would  be  required  to  write  the  formula.  This  ele- 
ment is  peculiar  in  that  it  has  the  remarkable  power  of 
entering  into  union  with  itself  as  well  as  with  other 
substances  and  is  thus  able  to  build  up  large  molecules 
containing  a  great  number  of  atoms  which  form  the  basis 
of  living  structures.  The  complex  carbon  molecules  are 
relatively  stable  and  thus  give  a  needed  permanency  to 
delicate  organic  substances.  "  It  is  a  curious  fact  in 
nature  that  there  seems  to  be  a  position  of  greater  stability 
when  groups  of  six  carbon  atoms  unite  in  little  galaxies 
or  concatenations.  .  .  .  Although  such  groups  of  less,  or 
occasionally  more,  than  six  carbon  atoms  are  formed 
naturally  by  life  processes,  by  far  the  greater  portion  of 
the  substance  of  living  organisms  is  built  up  of  six  carbon 
groups  and  multiples  of  these."  1 

Carbonic  acid  enters  and  leaves  water  freely  and  is 
always  associated  with  it.  From  the  first  "  it  has  steadily 
fulfilled  the  function  of  regulating  the  reaction  of  proto- 
plasm and  of  body  tissue  and  fluids.  The  one  chemical 
process  which  is  open,  if  any  transformations  whatsoever 
are  to  be  accomplished  with  carbonic  acid  and  water,  leads 
directly  and  to  all  appearances  necessarily  to  the  greatest 
complexity  that  has  been  found  in  any  one  chemical  pro- 

i  MOOBE,  B.    Origin  and  Nature  of  Life,  p.  105. 


10  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cess:  to  a  system  made  up  of  possibly  two  hundred  sub- 
stances or  more,  most  of  which  possess  very  great  chemical 
activity."  2  The  "  unparalleled  instability  "  of  hydrogen 
and  oxygen  with  the  stability  of  some  of  the  other  factors 
makes  possible  the  wonderful  and  delicate  adjustment  of 
the  body  between  the  conflicting  demands  of  permanency 
and  change. 

The  three  great  classes  of  food  are  the  carbohydrates, 
the  sugars  and  starches,  which  contain  from  thirty  to 
forty  of  these  great  carbon  groups  joined  together;  the 
fats,  formed  by  the  substitution  of  hydrogen  for  part  of 
the  oxygen  in  the  carbohydrates;  and  the  proteins,  which 
differ  from  carbohydrates  and  fats  in  that  they  con- 
tain nitrogen  and  sometimes  phosphorus,  sulphur  and  iron. 
Substances  not  in  the  food  group  or  taken  in  excessive 
amounts  must  be  eliminated.  Here  again  carbon  and 
oxygen  play  a  great  part.  The  lungs  are  stimulated  into 
motion  by  carbonic  acid.  The  oxygen  enters  and  is  car- 
ried through  the  system.  The  objectionable  substances 
are  broken  down  and  burned  to  final  products,  usually 
carbon  and  water.  We  are  not  surprised  to  learn  then 
that  a  man  weighing  60-70  kilograms  excretes  daily: 
water,  2500-3500  grams;  carbon  dioxid,  750-900  grams; 
all  other  substances,  60-125  grams.  Thus,  in  that  won- 
derful process  of  building  up  and  tearing  down  called 
metabolism,  we  gain  the  desirable  elements  and  eliminate 
the  harmful.  How  these  elements  are  changed  into  living 
structure  we  know  not  —  the  fad  has  become  clear.  We 
are  all  familiar  with  the  old  illustration  of  the  lily  beauti- 
ful in  spite  of  the  mud  in  which  it  grows.  We  see  that 
the  lily  is  beautiful  because  of  the  mud.  Did  not  these 

2  HENDERSON,  L.  J.     The  Fitness  of  the  Environment,  p.  219. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  11 

inorganic  substances  possess  their  peculiar  properties,  life 
could  not  be. 

It  was  not  enough  for  nature  to  furnish  the  basic  ele- 
ments of  life.  These  had  to  be  gathered  together  and 
made  available.  This  leads  us  to  the  study  of  soils.  A 
few  plants  like  some  mosses  can  live  directly  on  rocks 
drawing  their  sustenance  chiefly  from  the  air.  Oppor- 
tunity for  root  growth  is  essential  to  the  higher  types. 
Soils  have  been  produced  by  the  disintegration  of  rocks 
and  the  decay  of  vegetation  age  after  age  in  the  place 
where  the  soil  now  is,  or  else  they  have  been  formed  by 
the  action  of  rain,  wind  and  ice.  We  may  thus  classify 
the  chief  sorts: 

Sedentary       C    1.    Residual  gravels,  clays,  sands 

2.  Peat,  muck,  swamp  soils 

3.  Alluvial 
Transported   -     4.     Glacial 

5.     Wind-blown,  sand  dunes,  loess 

Soils  of  these  various  types  will  have  different  char- 
acteristics. The  soil  particles  will  vary  in  size  from  clay, 
so  fine  that  it  can  scarcely  be  measured,  to  coarse  gravel. 
They  will  vary  in  weight  per  cubic  foot,  exclusive  of 
water,  from  peat  at  40  pounds ;  clay,  75 ;  half  sand  and 
half  clay,  96;  to  siliceous  sand,  110.  The  texture  of  the 
soil  is  fixed  by  the  arrangement  of  its  particles  and  this 
determines  the  moisture  it  may  hold.  In  fine  clay  the 
pore  space  is  about  50  per  cent  but  in  coarse  sand  only 
25  per  cent.  Evaporation  takes  a  large  amount  of  water 
from  the  soil,  hence  a  covering  of  fine  particles  helps  to 
retain  the  moisture.  For  one  ton  of  clover  hay  some 
1560  tons  of  water  are  used.  Here  again  the  significance 
of  water  is  indicated.  Not  merely  does  it  furnish  a  large 


12  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

part  of  the  substance  of  the  plants,  but  through  the  affin- 
ities of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  it  combines  with  the  various 
soil  elements  and  makes  them  available  as  plant  food. 
Once  in  a  while  the  results  are  less  happy.  In  countries 
of  good  rainfall  the  soluble  salts  of  calcium,  magnesium, 
sodium  and  potassium  are  leached  out  of  the  soil  and 
carried  off.  In  arid  regions  they  are  often  brought  to 
the  surface  and  deposited  as  alkali  which  seriously  checks 
and  even  prevents  plant  growth. 

Inasmuch  as  plants  must  have  certain  chemicals  it  is 
evident  that  the  fertility  of  the  soil  depends  in  part  upon 
the  amount  of  these  present.  If  one  essential  is  lacking, 
growth  is  checked,  no  matter  how  abundant  the  other 
elements. 

In  thirty-four  soils  analyzed  by  American  chemists,  the 
first  eight  inches  of  soil  of  an  acre  contained,  on  an 
average,  potential  plant  food  as  follows:  nitrogen,  3,217 
pounds;  phosphoric  acid,  3,936  pounds  and  potash,  17,597 
pounds;  a  total  of  24,750  pounds  or  more  than  12  tons. 

Since  these  elements  are  taken  out  of  the  soil  by  plants 
year  by  year  they  must  be  returned  in  some  way  or  else 
the  soil  will  grow  sterile.  In  good  measure  this  is  accom- 
plished by  the  decay  of  the  plants.  The  fact  that  the 
value  of  complete  fertilizers  manufactured  in  the  United 
States  increased  from  $26,318,000  in  1900  to  $31,305,- 
000  in  1905,  or  18  per  cent,  indicates  man's  recognition 
of  the  necessity  of  replacing  these  food  elements.  Plant 
life  soon  shows  any  decrease  in  needed  supplies  by  spind- 
ling growth,  poor  color  and  little  fruit. 

Different  plants  make  different  demands  upon  the  soil. 
When  the  grains  languish,  while  sorrel  and  oxeye  daisy 
thrive,  it  is  found  that  nitrogen  is  lacking.  Recently 
we  learned  that  the  essential  but  not  abundant  element 


EARTH  AND  MAN  13 

nitrogen  is  drawn  directly  from  the  air  by  the  legumi- 
nous plants:  clovers,  peas  and  beans.  Thus  the  fertility 
of  the  soil  is  materially  enhanced.  Large  amounts  of  lime 
will  keep  out  chestnut,  rhododendron  or  laurel,  but  will 
give  a  splendid  growth  of  grass  as  is  seen  in  the  blue 
grass  region  of  Kentucky.  When  grass  fails  and  moss 
grows  the  wise  farmer  knows  that  lime  is  needed  to  correct 
the  acidity  of  the  soil.  It  is  sour,  as  he  says. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  farmer,  the  soils  have  other 
important  features.  Some  of  the  richest  alluvial  soils  are 
so  level  that  adequate  natural  drainage  does  not  exist. 
Other  districts  are  so  hilly  that  cultivation  is  difficult 
and  the  land  washes  badly.  Yet  others  are  stony.  Some 
retain  moisture  and  may  be  heavy  and  cold.  Others  per- 
mit rapid  evaporation  and  are  light  and  warm.  What- 
ever be  the  soil,  the  wise  farmer  knows  the  wisdom  of 
using  the  crops  adapted  thereto  and  the  methods  of  culti- 
vation necessary  under  the  given  conditions  for  the  best 
result.  He  knows  that  alfalfa  will  send  its  roots  ten  to 
twenty  feet  to  water,  while  to  produce  corn  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  the  water  close  to  the  surface. 

With  the  exception  of  the  tides,  and  possibly  radio- 
active substances,  the  sun  is  the  sole  source  of  energy  on 
this  planet.  Even  the  coal  and  petroleum,  on  which  we 
depend  for  fuel  and  artificial  light,  are  little  more  than 
stored  up  sun  rays  of  bygone  days.  We  may  consider 
the  influence  of  the  sun  in  several  aspects  as:  (1)  con- 
troller of  the  orbit  of  the  earth;  (2)  the  source  of  light; 
(3)  the  source  of  heat;  (4)  the  cause  of  the  distribution  of 
rain,  and  (5)  the  cause  of  wind  and  storm. 

The  rotation  of  the  earth  on  its  axis  in  its  great  course 
about  the  sun  gives  us  the  phenomena  of  day  and  night 
with  its  variation  from  twelve  hours  each  at  the  tropics 


14  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

to  six  months  each  at  the  poles.  It  gives  us  further  the 
procession  of  the  seasons  with  their  varied  characters. 
Here  we  have  the  basis  for  our  measurements  of  time 
and  the  start  of  the  mathematical  sciences. 

Light  enables  us  to  see  and  direct  our  movements.  To 
a  large  degree  it  controls  the  growth  of  plants  and  animals. 
The  construction  of  the  substances  we  call  proteids  by 
the  chlorophyll-holding  plants  takes  place  only  in  the 
light.  The  lower  the  temperature  the  greater  the  amount 
of  light  needed.  The  influence  of  light  on  the  leaves 
causes  them  to  draw  many  needed  elements  from  the  air. 
Thanks  to  the  spectroscope  we  now  know  the  spectrum 
of  colors  from  red  at  the  lower  end  to  violet  at  the  upper. 
Experiment  has  revealed  that  red  and  yellow  light  pro- 
mote the  assimilation  of  carbon  dioxid.  Under  such  light 
plants  prosper  as  the  following  shows : 

(Mimosa  pudica)  Sensitive  plants,  seeds  planted  in  May  8 

Kind  of  Light  Red  Green  White  Blue 

Height  of  plants 

Sept.  6 0.22  m.  0.09  m.  0.04  m.  0.03  m. 

Oct.   22    0.42  m.  0.15  m.  0.10  m.  0.03  m. 

So  necessary  is  the  sunlight  that  few  plants  will  survive  if 
the  tops  are  repeatedly  cut,  no  matter  how  sturdy  the  roots. 
In  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  the  sun,  shining  longer 
and  more  directly  upon  the  southern  slope  of  hills,  makes 
them  much  warmer  than  those  of  the  northern  slope.  From 
the  surface  of  water,  or  from  cliffs  and  buildings,  so 
much  heat  is  often  reflected  that  adjoining  slopes  are  fre- 
quently much  warmer  than  those  removed  from  such 
influences.  Reflection  from  the  snow  will  sometimes 
blister  one's  face  or  produce  the  dreaded  snow-blindness. 

a  HANN,  J.    Handbook  of  Climatology,  p.  36. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  15 

The  shady  sides  of  forests  or  wind  breaks  are  correspond- 
ingly cooler.     Thus  plant  growth  is  hastened  or  checked. 

The  temperature  determines  the  character  of  the  vegeta- 
tion. In  the  tropics  one  finds  the  characteristic  plants 
with  broad  leaves  and  naked  buds,  of  great  size  and 
continuous  growth  —  a  veritable  riot  of  profusion,  with 
woods  so  full  of  undergrowth  that  travel  is  difficult. 
Further  north  come  the  deciduous  trees  with  protected 
buds,  accustomed  to  endure  both  heat  and  cold,  or  spiny- 
leaved  evergreens.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  nearer 
the  pole  the  scantier  and  more  dwarfed  the  vegetation. 
Periods  of  growth  are  followed  by  months  of  rest  when 
the  sap  no  longer  runs.  The  woods  no  longer  teem  with 
underbrush  save  where  the  older  trees  have  been  destroyed. 
A  similar  change  may  be  noted  among  the  animals. 
Lizards  and  snakes  gradually  disappear  along  with  the 
thick-skinned  but  practically  hairless  elephants  and  hippo- 
potami. In  their  stead  wolves,  bears  and  fur-bearing 
animals  appear.  Gaudily  colored  birds  are  replaced  by 
those  of  simpler  dress;  toucan  and  parrot  yield  to  spar- 
row and  grouse.  In  the  world  of  water,  sponge  and 
coral  are  replaced  by  oyster  and  lobster;  the  ocean  ferns 
by  kelp.  Hence  we  divide  the  plants  in  our  gardens  into 
three  groups:  tender,  half-hardy,  hardy.  The  first  are 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  frost  (such  as  cannas)  ;  the  second 
will  endure  moderate  cold  and  occasionally  survive  if  left  in 
the  ground  over  winter  (gladioli)  ;  while  the  last  are 
rarely  injured,  no  matter  how  severe  the  cold  (peonies). 
We  may  grow  tropical  plants  out-of-doors  during  our 
hot  summers,  but  we  do  not  change  their  nature.  With 
the  advent  of  cold  weather  we  must  take  them  indoors  or 
let  them  perish. 

This  succession  of  the  seasons  produces  less  effect  upon 


16 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


the  temperature  of  the  ocean  than  on  land  as  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  diagram.4 


Mean 


19.8" 


ANNUAL  MARCH  OF  TEMPERATURE  IN  CONTINENTAL  AND  MARINE 
CLIMATES 

The  extremes  of  temperature  are  much  greater  on  con- 
tinental areas  than  on  the  ocean.  In  continental  areas 
the  maximum  temperature  is  attained  about  one  month 
after  the  sun  reaches  its  highest  altitude ;  the  lowest  about 
one  month  after  its  lowest  declination.  In  marine  areas 
the  highest  temperature  comes  a  month  or  so  later 
(August),  while  the  lowest  is  not  reached  before  March. 
In  the  interior  of  the  United  States  the  temperature  of 
the  winter  months  fluctuates  more  than  4.5°  about  the 
mean;  in  Eussia,  6.3° ;  but  in  the  coast  climate  of  Eng- 
land only  2.7°.  The  ocean  climate,  therefore,  changes 
less  from  day  to  day  and  its  extremes  are  less.  The  tem- 
perature in  large  bodies  of  water  varies  to  some  extent 
with  the  depth.  The  temperature  in  Lake  Michigan  at 
the  surface  in  summer  is  put  at  64.9° ;  at  a  depth  of  18 
feet,  64.9° ;  74  feet,  44.9° ;  436  feet,  39.5°. 

The  different  response  of  land  and  water  to  the  rays  of 
the  sun  sets  up  the  movements  we  call  winds  or  currents. 
In  older  times  man  thought :  "  The  wind  bloweth  where 
*  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  141. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  17 

it  listeth,"  but  now  we  have  come  to  understand  that 
these  movements  of  air  and  water  are  in  response  to 
definite  laws.  To  a  large  extent  we  have  charted  the 
ocean  streams  and  understood  why  the  Gulf  Stream  flows 
north,  modifying  the  climate  of  the  Atlantic  Coast,  while 
from  the  north  comes  a  cold  stream.  The  circulation  in 
large  bodies  of  water  is  significant  inasmuch  as  the  water 
absorbs  oxygen  at  the  surface.  This  must  be  carried  to 
lower  levels  if  fish  are  to  survive.  These  currents  are 
not  well  known  today.  The  air  currents  are  less 
thoroughly  understood,  though  great  progress  has  been 
made  in  mapping  them  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  United  States  is  in  the  zone  of  prevailing 
west  winds,  which  in  large  measure  accounts  for  the  cold 
climate  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  country  in  winter 
and  its  heat  in  summer.  The  wind,  moreover,  determines 
the  distribution  of  the  water  taken  from  the  ocean  through 
evaporation  and  carried  by  the  clouds.  The  presence  of 
a  high  mountain  range  on  the  west  coast  stops  the  moisture- 
laden  clouds  from  the  west  and  creates  a  semi-desert  to 
the  east.  Barring  a  little  water  from  the  north,  all  the 
rest  for  our  great  country  must  work  north  and  west 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Atlantic.  The  result 
is  that  west  of  the  100°  meridian  the  supply  is  inade- 
quate for  ordinary  crops.  Another  result  is  that  the  west 
coasts  of  America,  as  well  as  of  Europe  and  Asia  con- 
sidered as  a  whole,  are  much  warmer  and  subject  to  fewer 
extremes  than  the  east  coasts.  We  may  compare  two 

places  to  show  this: 

Mean  Annual  Coldest  Warmest 

Latitude       Temperature  month  month 

New  York  City..     40.8°                 51.08>°  35.06°  75.38° 

San  Francisco...     37.48°               54.9°  49°  59° 

The  city  of  London  is  covered  with  fog  from  50  to  75 


18          THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

days  a  year.  On  the  North  Pacific  coast  65  per  cent  of 
the  days  are  cloudy ;  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  50 
per  cent;  Mississippi  and  Missouri  valleys,  45  to  50  per 
cent;  while  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  have  one  of  the 
sunniest  climates  on  earth,  only  30  per  cent  of  the  days 
being  cloudy.  Corresponding  to  this  is  the  rainfall. 
On  the  North  Pacific  coast  the  rainfall  is  estimated  at 
60  to  100  inches  annually;  in  the  region  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  30  to  40  inches;  lower  Mississippi  Valley,  45  to 
60  inches;  upper  Mississippi  and  Missouri  valleys,  15 
to  40  inches;  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  10  to  20  inches 
and  Eastern  coastal  plain,  40  to  60  inches. 

Inasmuch  as  all  life  depends  upon  water,  the  question 
of  rainfall  is  one  of  extreme  importance.  The  annual 
average  of  seven  to  ten  inches  makes  general  agriculture 
possible,  provided  that  the  rain  comes  at  the  right  time. 
A  much  heavier  rainfall  coming  in  a  brief  period  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  drought  may  prohibit  the  growth  of 
plants.  If  the  rains  are  light,  the  water  may  evaporate 
ere  plant  roots  are  benefited;  if  very  heavy,  they  may 
beat  down  and  destroy  crops  and  wash  the  soil.  Fog  may 
bring  little  precipitation,  but  may  produce  many  of  the 
same  effects  and  be  very  helpful,  while  dew  prevents 
freezing  ofttimes  and  also  furnishes  moisture.  Granted 
then  an  adequate  rainfall,  under  given  conditions,  an  in- 
crease may  produce  greater  results  as  this  chart  shows : 

Relation  Between  Annual  Rainfall  and  Number  of  Sheep  per 
Square  Mile  in  Australia  and  Argentina 

Sheep  per      Increased  capacity  for 

District  Rainfall     square  mile    each  added  inch  of  rain 

South  Australia  Say  1st  8-10  in.    8-9  (  T)    About     1  sheep  per  sq.  m. 
N.  S.  Wales  ( 1 )  9  +  4  96  «        22      "      "    "     " 

N.S.Wales  (2)       9  +  4  +  7  640  "        70      "       "    "     " 

Buenoa  Aires     9  +  4  +  7  +  14    2630          "      140      "      "    «'•   "  » 

s  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  58. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  19 

In  the  wheat  districts  the  added  yield  was  almost  ex- 
actly the  same  as  difference  in  inches  of  rain: 

6  bad  years 13.5  inches  rain    6.6  bu.  per  acre 

5  better  "  15.4  inches  rain    10.  bu.  per  acre 

7  best   "   18.5  inches  rain    12.4  bu.  per  acre « 

Under  dry  farming  conditions  it  has  been  calculated 
that 

1  acre  inch  water  will  produce     2%  bu.  wheat 

10  acre  inch  water  will  produce  25  bu.  wheat 

15  acre  inch  water  will  produce  37%  bu.  wheat 

20  acre  inch  water  will  produce  50  bu.  wheat  7 

The  total  reduction  in  the  corn  crop  of  the  United  States 
in  1913  owing  to  the  drought  of  that  year  was  estimated 
at  750,000,000  bushels.  In  one  place  in  Kansas  the 
thermometer  stood  at  100°  or  over  for  64  days,  while  the 
total  rainfall  between  July  1  and  September  7  was  0.03 
inches. 

In  Jamaica  with  56  inches  of  rain,  sugar  yielded  1,441 
casks  per  acre;  with  76  inches,  1,559.8 

In  marine  climates  wheat  is  said  to  contain  9  to  12 
per  cent  of  protein,  while  in  Russia  and  Hungary  it  is 
4  to  8  per  cent  richer.  Hot,  dry  climate  decreases  the 
proportion  of  starch  and  increases  that  of  gluten.9 

Moist  tropical  valleys  sheltered  from  the  wind  may  be 
very  unhealthful  owing  to  the  growth  of  lower  forms  of 
life.  A  similar  situation  in  other  zones  may  give  happy 
results.  "  In  times  of  calm,  the  air  temperature  may 
itself  be  quite  unimportant.  An  unobstructed  exposure 
to  solar  radiation,  combined  with  a  calm  condition  of 
the  atmosphere,  makes  it  possible  for  certain  high  valleys 
in  the  Alps,  which  are  especially  well  sheltered,  to  rival 

e  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  58. 

7  BAILEY,  L.  H.    Farm  and  Garden  Rule  Book,  p.  34. 

s  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  58. 

» Ibid.,  p.  141. 


20  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

many  southern  winter  resorts,  notwithstanding  the  ex- 
treme cold  of  the  winters."  10  In  California  the  Napa 
Valley  north  of  San  Francisco  produces  some  of  the  ear- 
liest fruit  for  like  reasons. 

In  damp  climates  the  water  in  the  air  forms  nearly 
3  per  cent  of  the  whole  by  volume  while  in  Central 
Europe  the  percentage  is  only  1.3.  The  percentage  of 
carbon  increases  during  fogs.  Air  ordinarily  contains 
many  impurities,  both  inorganic  and  organic.  In  a  cubic 
meter  of  air  in  the  Alps  one  observer  found  345  bacteria 
per  cubic  meter,  whereas  in  Paris  4,790  were  found.  One 
of  the  great  services  performed  by  rain  is  the  cleansing 
of  the  air  by  removing  these  impurities.  The  air  of  the 
desert  and  the  ocean  is  very  pure.  The  presence  of  ozone 
indicates  the  absence  of  organic  impurities,  and  ozone  is 
not  to  be  found  in  inhabited  rooms.  In  the  Alps  it  is 
found  to  be  four  times  as  common  as  in  Paris.  Hann 
shows  the  extent  of  the  contamination  of  the  air  in  cities 
by  the  following  table : 

i 

Impurities  in  Air,  Feb.,  1891.    Greenhouses  at  Chelsea  and  Kew 
Deposits  Equal  to  22  Lbs.  per  Acre,  or  6  Tons  to  Mile  " 

Chelsea  Kew 

Carbon    39.  42.5 

Hydrocarbons    12.3  )  ^  g 

Organic    bases    2.     ) 

Sulphuric  acid   ( SO8)    4.3  4. 

Hydrochloric  acid    (HCL)    1.4  0.8 

Ammonia    1.4  1.1 

Minerals    (silica-iron)     33.8  41.5 

Water  (est.)    5.8  5.3 

100.0  100.0 

The  soot  deposit  each  year  in  central  London  is  esti- 
mated at  426  tons  per  square  mile;  in  Leeds  at  539;  in 

10  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  38. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  77. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  21 

Glasgow  at  820  and  in  Pittsburgh  at  from  595  to  1940. 
The  smoke  at  Pittsburgh  contains  about  3,000,000  tons 
of  sulphur  yearly  or  enough  to  dissolve  265,000  tons  of 
structural  iron.  The  damage  done  is  estimated  at  $10,- 
000,000.  The  city  of  Los  Angeles  gets  from  60  to  75 
per  cent  of  all  possible  sunshine,  while  Pittsburgh  gets 
from  35  to  58  per  cent. 

It  is  quite  as  necessary  for  the  florist  to  control  the 
moisture  as  the  temperature  if  he  would  grow  plants  under 
glass.  Some  plants  demand  much  more  moisture  than 
others.  This  fact  gives  humidity  some  of  its  most  im- 
portant indirect  effects.  In  a  given  locality  an  excess 
of  rain  above  the  average  may  promote  the  growth  of 
poisonous  plants.  In  Montana  the  stockmen  have  long 
realized  the  increased  frequency  of  trouble  due  to  the 
larkspurs,  water  hemlock,  loco  weeds,  and  poison  camas. 
Excess  moisture  is  very  likely  to  lead  to  epidemics  of 
disease  because  of  the  fact  that  under  such  conditions 
the  plants  or  animals  causing  disease  and  the  types  carry- 
ing the  disease  flourish.  In  Africa  the  sleeping  sickness 
is  carried  by  the  tsetse  fly  inhabiting  the  banks  of  streams 
and  ponds.  Malaria  disappears  in  the  Middle  West  when 
the  marshes  are  drained  and  the  land  cultivated.  Indeed, 
the  disappearance  of  the  great  hordes  of  horses  that  once 
inhabited  North  America  long  before  the  advent  of  man 
is  best  explained  on  the  basis  of  some  disease;  and  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  fossil  flies  similar  to  the  disease- 
carrying  flies  of  Africa  (glossina)  have  been  found.  In 
other  words,  moderately  dry  conditions  have  always  been 
most  favorable  to  the  higher  types  of  life.  "  It  is  a 
matter  of  universal  observation  that  in  tick  or  insect- 
infested  countries  dry  seasons  result  in  the  reduction, 
moist  seasons  in  the  increase  of  diseases;  dry  localities 


22  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

are  favorable,  moist  localities  are  unfavorable."  12  Per- 
haps the  plagues  of  history  occurred  during  wet  seasons. 
With  reference  to  increased  rainfall,  Osborn  further 
says:  "  (1)  It  may  diminish  the  supply  of  harder 
grasses  to  which  certain  quadrupeds  have  become 
thoroughly  adapted;  (2)  it  may  at  the  same  time  produce 
new  poisonous  or  deleterious  plants;  (3)  it  may  be  the 
means  of  introducing  new  insects  or  other  pests,  and  new 
insect  barriers;  (4)  it  may  be  the  means  of  introducing 
new  protozoan  diseases  and  new  carriers  of  disease;  and 
(5)  it  may  be  the  means  of  erecting  new  forest  barriers 
to  migration,  or  new  forest  migration  tracts  for  certain 
carnivora,  such  as  the  bears."  The  last  clauses  call  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  migration  is  facilitated  or  made 
impossible  by  the  presence  or  absence  of  cover,  of  food 
supply,  of  dangerous  animals  or  insects. 

Moisture  in  the  form  of  snow  is  not  to  be  overlooked. 
Eadiation  from  snow  lowers  the  temperature  in  winter 
and  retards  its  rise  in  spring,  hence  April  is  colder  than 
!N"ovember.  Snow  may  blanket  the  earth  and  afford  pro- 
tection to  seeds,  bulbs  and  roots  which  would  otherwise 
perish  from  the  cold.  This  protection  is  likewise  ex- 
tended to  animals,  even  to  man  himself.  Snow  houses  are 
not  undervalued  by  the  Eskimo.  Snow,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  cover  the  grass  and  make  it  impossible  for  the  animals 
to  get  food.  Horses  will  get  at  the  grass  under  three  feet 
of  snow  and  survive,  while  the  cattle  perish.  The  snow 
may  cover  the  ordinary  food  supply  and  force  animals  to 
eat  twigs  or  taller  plants  which  may  be  indigestible  or  even 
poisonous.  Again,  the  snow  may  make  traveling  difficult 
for  certain  types  and  thus  favor  their  enemies.  The  deer 

12  OsBOBN,  H.  F.     Age  of  Mammals,  p.  508. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  23 

are  in  greater  danger  from  wolves  when  the  snow  is  deep. 

Besides  driving  the  rain  clouds  the  winds  produce  other 
effects.  They  greatly  increase  the  evaporation  of  water 
and  thus  affect  the  humidity  of  the  air.  They  cause  more 
rapid  conduction  of  heat  from  the  body  and  thus  increase 
the  sensibility  to  lower  temperatures,  while  if  the  tem- 
peratures are  high  their  effect  is  pleasing.  Some  animals 
hide  when  the  wind  blows.  To  some  extent  the  winds 
control  the  distribution  of  such  animals  as  moths  and 
butterflies  and  also  of  plants.  They  have  marked  effects 
on  human  beings  as  will  be  shown  later. 

Temperature  is  perhaps  the  most  influential  factor  in 
determining  the  distribution  of  life.  This  has  varying 
aspects.  Indirectly  it  may  control  the  habitat  because  of 
food  supply.  Many  birds  could  easily  spend  winter  north 
of  the  40°  latitude  if  the  food  supply  were  adequate. 
Robins,  blackbirds,  meadow  larks,  turtle  doves  and  others 
occasionally  remain  in  mild  winters  in  greatly  reduced 
numbers.  The  codfish  have  a  temperature  of  about  37°. 
They  refuse  to  remain  in  water  that  falls  to  32°.  In 
1882  a  section  of  the  Atlantic  170  miles  in  length  by  25 
in  width  was  covered  with  dead  "  tile-fish  "  (Lopholatilus 
chamceleonticeps)  the  total  number  being  estimated  at 
1,400,000,000.  They  live  at  the  edge  of  the  Gulf  Stream 
at  a  depth  of  about  600  feet.  In  this  year  the  Gulf 
Stream  seems  to  have  shifted  its  course  with  the  result 
above  stated.  In  1892  it  resumed  its  old  course  and  since 
that  time  the  fish  have  increased  again,  being  present  in 
large  numbers  in  1915. 

In  America,  north  of  southern  Mexico,  there  are  seven 
transcontinental  life  zones :  three  boreal,  three  austral  and 
one  tropical ;  "  each  characterized  by  particular  associa- 


24  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tions  of  plants  and  animals."  These  belts  are  determined 
by  the  temperature.  In  the  development  of  plants  all 
temperatures  above  42.8°  are  important. 

Tropical  26,000°  hottest  period   over    78.8° 

Lower    Austral    18,000  hottest  period   over    78.8 

Upper  Austral 11,500  hottest  period  below  78.8 

Transition     10,000  hottest  period  below  71.6 

Boreal  —  below    10,000  hottest  period  below  64.4  « 

The  Biological  Survey  is  endeavoring  to  trace  as  accu- 
rately as  possible  the  actual  boundaries  of  these  areas,  and 
is  preparing  lists  of  the  native  animals  and  of  agricultural 
products  that  are  adapted  to  each. 

A  most  important  phase  of  temperature  is  its  influence 
on  reproduction.  The  distribution  of  animals  turns  not 
so  much  on  the  mean  annual  temperature  as  on  the  mean 
temperature  during  the  period  of  reproduction  and  in- 
fancy. Thus  the  northward  spread  of  tropical  plants  and 
animals  is  limited  by  the  cold  of  the  north,  while  the 
southward  extension  of  colder  types  is  limited  by  the 
heat.  Merriam  has  called  this  the  "  law  of  temperature 
control,"  and  he  thus  states  it :  "  Temperature  by  con- 
trolling reproduction  predetermines  the  possibilities  of 
distribution;  it  fixes  the  limits  beyond  which  species 
cannot  pass;  it  defines  broad,  transcontinental  barriers 
within  which  they  cannot  exist,  be  the  other  conditions 
never  so  favorable,  because  of  infertility." 14  Many 
plants  of  warmer  regions  will  grow  in  colder  regions  but 
without  producing  seed.  It  was  noted,  long  before  the 
cause  of  the  disease  was  discovered,  that  yellow  fever 
stopped  with  the  oncoming  of  frosts  in  the  fall.  The 
whale  breathes  air,  yet  cannot  live  out  of  water.  This 

is  MEBBIAM,  C.  H.    Life  Zones  and  Crop  Zones,  pp.  54-55. 
I«MEBBIAM,  C.  H.     In  Osborn,  o.  c.,  p.  504. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  25 

is  due  to  the  heat  produced  by  the  sun.  The  fat  pro- 
tects the  whale  in  water,  but  kills  it  in  the  air. 

Thus  far  in  the  discussion  emphasis  has  been  placed 
upon  the  physical  factors  which  control  and  regulate  life. 
If  we  change  the  viewpoint  and  consider  primarily  life 
itself,  we  will  be  led  to  speak  of  adaptation.  Really  then 
control  and  adaptation  are  but  varying  aspects  of  the  same 
process. 

There  are  but  two  sources  of  oxygen,  air  and  water, 
and  the  first  great  adaptation  is  to  one  of  these.  The 
lowest  forms  of  life  have  little  specialization  of  organs 
so  far  as  we  can  judge,  but  in  the  higher  forms  we  find 
either  lungs  or  gills.  The  whale  may  live  in  the  ocean, 
provided  it  comes  to  the  surface  to  breathe;  the  flying 
fish  may  dart  into  the  air,  but  must  soon  seek  the  wave. 
The  fish  does  not  decompose  the  water  in  breathing,  but 
utilizes  only  the  free  oxygen  carried  by  the  water.  Water 
absorbs  and  holds  various  gases.  Brook  trout  thrive  if 
there  are  5  c.c.  of  oxygen  to  the  liter,  while  if  there  are 
5  c.c.  of  carbon  dioxid  to  the  liter  of  water,  the  fish  are 
driven  out.  Plants  thrive  by  virtue  of  the  carbon  dioxid 
present  in  water.  In  an  aquarium  there  is  frequently 
an  excess  of  nitrogen,  which  causes  suffering  to  the  fish. 
Moreover,  the  air  or  water  must  be  of  fairly  uniform 
character  if  the  best  results  are  to  follow.  Pure  water 
like  pure  air  can  hardly  exist  outside  the  laboratory. 
Water  contains  not  merely  sand  and  dirt,  but  likewise 
numberless  substances  held  in  solution,  of  which  the  com- 
monest is  salt.  Few  plants  or  animals  accustomed  to 
fresh  water  can  exist  in  salt,  while  few  of  those  in  the 
ocean  could  survive  in  Great  Salt  Lake.  If  the  streams 
are  polluted  with  acids,  coal,  dirt  and  filth,  the  fish  soon 
leave  or  perish.  The  fumes  from  a  smelter  may  destroy 


26  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

vegetation.  Stone  cutters,  coal  miners,  painters  and  men 
who  work  in  the  dust  of  streets  breathe  in  so  much 
foreign  matter  that  their  lungs  are  coated,  the  supply  of 
oxygen  thereby  reduced  and  they  are  made  susceptible  to 
the  attacks  of  germ  diseases,  if  not  actually  poisoned  by 
the  substances  inhaled,  as  in  the  case  of  phosphorus  or 
lead. 

In  the  ocean  and  lakes  there  appears  to  be  a  pretty 
definite  stratification  of  life,  certain  types  being  always 
found  near  the  surface,  others  at  lower  depths  while  some 
are  found  only  far  below  the  surface.  This  is  shown  by 
the  following  table: 

Stratification  of  Fish  in  Lake  Michigan 

Lake  Herring   (Argyrosomus  artedi) 

Whitefish  (Coregonus  clupeiformis)  21-36  meters;  spawning  16- 
19  meters  usually 

Lake  trout  (Cristivomer  namaycush)  below  25  meters,  except  dur- 
ing breeding  season  (2-25  meters) 

The  Long-jaw  Whitefish   (Argyrosomus  prognathus)   36-66  meters 

The  Blackfish  (Argyrosomus  nigripiwnis)  70-80,  rising  to  60  in 
December 

Hoy's  Whitefish  (Argyrosomus  Hoyi)  — Usually  below  115  meters 

Small  Cottoid  (Triglopsis  Thompsoni)  — Below  115  meters15 

Possibly  intensity  of  light  is  responsible  for  the  strati- 
fication just  mentioned,  for  it  seems  these  dwellers  of  the 
depths  come  to  the  surface  only  at  night.  Practically  no 
light  rays  penetrate  more  than  350  feet  below  the  surface 
of  the  water.  Owls  can  see  by  day,  but  greatly  prefer 
to  hunt  at  night.  The  lowly  forms  of  life  dwelling  be- 
neath the  surface  of  the  ground  have,  like  the  moles,  little 
use  for  eyes,  while  the  same  is  true  of  the  blind  fish  of 
Mammoth  Cave.  Parasitic  forms  that  live  within  the 
bodies  of  animals  can  seldom  stand  direct  exposure  to 
light  for  any  length  of  time.  The  germs  of  syphilis  and 

isSHELFOBD,  V.  E.  Animal  Communities  in  Temperate  America, 
p.  82. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  27 

tuberculosis  are  soon  killed  by  sunlight.  If  a  cockroach 
is  set  free  it  will  seek  the  shadow,  while  the  fly  goes  to 
the  light.  In  ponds  the  snails  seek  a  faint  light,  being 
found  in  the  lightest  spots  on  the  darkest  days. 

Activity  is  determined  by  structure.  The  fish  swims 
because  it  is  so  constructed  that  it  can't  help  swimming 
if  it  moves.  We  have  no  reason  to  think  it  prefers 
swimming  to  walking.  For  the  same  reason,  birds  fly 
and  man  walks  or  runs.  It  is  evident  that  this  coordina- 
tion has  not  been  produced  by  the  organisms  themselves, 
consciously  at  least.  In  the  main,  they  do  what  they  do 
because  of  what  they  are.  In  the  case  of  lower  types 
they  may  be  carried  by  wave,  wind  or  animal  agency  to 
uncongenial  regions  and  perish.  But  the  higher  forms 
by  their  power  of  motion  may  place  themselves  in  such 
situation  that  harm  or  death  must  follow.  Complete 
self-realization  even  for  man  himself  then  depends  upon 
maintaining  a  condition  of  adaptation.  From  this  there 
is  no  exception  unaccompanied  by  penalty. 

"  If  animals  are  placed  in  situations  where  a  number 
of  conditions  are  equally  available,  they  will  almost  al- 
ways be  found  living  or  staying  most  of  the  time  in  one 
of  the  places.  The  only  reason  to  be  assigned  to  this 
unequal  or  local  distribution  of  the  animals  is  that  they 
are  not  in  physiological  equilibrium  in  all  the  places."  18 
Its  habitat  then  is  selected  by  "  trial  and  error,"  that  is 
if  it  does  not  feel  comfortable  in  one  place  it  seeks  an- 
other till  at  length,  perhaps,  it  feels  content.  Animals 
of  the  same  species  will  show  different  habits  in  different 
environments.  "  Animals  living  in  the  same  places,  and 
apparently  under  the  same  external  conditions  of  exist- 
ence, nevertheless  behave  in  quite  different  ways  under 

is  SHELFOBD,  V.  E.    o.  c.,  p.  31. 


28  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  influence  of  the  various  substances  held  in  solution  of 
the  water,  as  salt,  oxygen,  carbonic  acid,  etc.  The  ova 
of  different  and  yet  very  closely  related  forms  can  endure 
a  long  period  of  drought,  or  even  require  it  to  enable 
them  to  develop.  Hence,  every  change,  as  for  instance, 
in  the  composition  of  the  water  of  a  lake  or  river  will  not 
affect  the  fauna  inhabiting  it  equally  and  as  a  whole,  but 
will  act  on  some  individuals;  some  will  bear  the  change 
without  being  in  any  way  affected  by  it,  others  will  die, 
while  others  again  will  survive."  17 

We  must  now  consider  more  directly  in  what  ways 
man  himself  is  influenced  by  the  physical  world  and  for 
purposes  of  discussion  we  may  divide  this  into  five  heads : 
(1)  distribution  and  migration,  (2)  occupation,  (3)  direct 
physical  effects,  (4)  physiological  effects,  (5)  psychical 
effects. 

1.  Distribution  and  Migration. —  The  common  belief 
is  that  the  human  race  arose  in  some  one  area.  Even  if 
this  be  true,  we  must  recognize  that  in  prehistoric  times 
man  had  made  his  way  to  every  part  of  the  earth.  Though 
the  density  of  population  turns  in  part  on  the  stage  of 
culture,  it  is  interesting  to  note  his  present  distribution. 

Approximate  Density  of  World's  Population,  1911 

Pop.  per 

Continent.                  Area  in  Sq.  M.  Population  Sq.  M. 

Europe     3,833,567  463,997,000  121.0 

Asia    16,997,639  962,233,000  56.6 

Africa    11,760,689  135,987,000  11.6 

North   America    8,631,657  127,993,000  14.8 

South   America    7,184,021  51,193,000  7.1 

Australasia     3,317,762  7,572,000  2.3 


Total     (excluding 

Polar    regions)  . .   51,725,335  1,748,975,000  33.8 

The    frigid    zones,    deserts,    high    mountain    ranges, 
IT  SEMPEB,  K.     Animal  Life,  p.  176. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  29 

swamps,  water  surfaces  are  sparsely  populated,  if  at  all. 
Most  mountain  districts  impose  hard  conditions  upon 
men.  In  Switzerland  the  mountain  cantons  show  the 
smallest  population  per  square  mile  (Grisons,  38;  Uri, 
48;  Valais,  59)  ;  while  those  on  the  marginal  plains  are 
relatively  crowded  (Zurich,  705;  Geneva,  1,356).  In 
England:  Westmoreland  (85);  in  Wales:  Radnor  (49); 
and  in  Scotland,  Sutherland  (11)  again  show  the  hill  coun- 
try, for  the  average  density  in  Great  Britain  is  374.  In 
Switzerland  only  15  per  cent  of  the  land  can  be  culti- 
vated and  the  same  is  true  of  Japan.  In  Norway  67  per 
cent  of  the  total  area  is  in  bare  mountains,  lakes,  snow 
fields  or  bogs,  7.6  per  cent  in  pastures,  2.2  per  cent  in 
meadows  and  7  per  cent  in  grain  fields.  The  dense 
populations  of  earth  are  found  in  the  lowlands  below  an 
elevation  of  600  feet:  in  China,  the  valleys  of  India,  the 
valleys  of  the  Po,  the  lowlands  of  France,  Germany  and 
England  where  the  population  is  over  385  per  square 
mile.  The  different  states  in  America  show  the  same 
contrast.  We  may  compare  Rhode  Island  (508),  Mass- 
achusetts (418)  and  New  Jersey  (327)  with  Montana 
(2.6),  Idaho  (3.9)  and  Louisiana  (36.5).  Wherever  a 
heavy  population  is  found  in  the  Piedmont  between  the 
lowlands  and  the  mountains  it  is  due  to  the  development 
of  mineral  resources.  Birmingham,  Alabama,  is  a  good 
illustration  of  this.  Unless  forced  by  his  enemies  or 
driven  by  pressure  of  population,  man  is  very  slow  to 
enter  the  mountains  as  places  of  permanent  residence. 
Hence  any  group  getting  located  in  the  mountains  is 
likely  to  drop  out  of  touch  with  the  development  of  the 
balance  of  the  country  and  become  "  our  contemporaneous 
ancestors "  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  southern  Appala- 
chians have  been  called. 


30  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Man's  movements  on  earth  have  been  directed  and  con- 
trolled by  physical  conditions.  High  mountain  ranges 
have  offered  next  to  the  ocean  the  greatest  barriers. 
Hence  has  arisen  in  human  history  the  importance  of 
passes.  Thermopylae  renowned  in  Greek  literature,  the 
Brenner  Pass  through  which  the  Germans  made  their 
way  to  the  Po  Valley,  the  Dariel  Pass  in  the  Caucasus, 
the  Cumberland  Gap,  the  Mohawk  Valley  and  Truckee 
Pass,  through  which  the  California  trail  in  the  40's  led, 
are  but  a  few  of  historical  importance. 

In  times  of  peace  the  passes  are  the  great  trade  routes 
determining  the  location  and  prosperity  of  many  settle- 
ments. The  Brenner  Pass  was  largely  responsible  for 
the  commercial  life  of  Augsburg,  Ratisbon,  Nuremberg, 
Leipzig  and,  in  part,  Venice.  Through  the  low  Mohawk 
Valley,  445  feet  above  sea  level,  was  the  line  of  march 
to  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  West.  The  district  became 
densely  populated  while  the  neighboring  Catskills  were 
nearly  empty.  Because  of  this  great  highway  Albany, 
Troy,  Utica,  Rochester  and  Buffalo  came  into  being. 
Had  the  St.  Lawrence  been  navigable  to  the  lakes  and 
its  mouth  free  from  ice  the  entire  development  of  North 
America  would  have  been  changed,  so  much  does  nature 
determine  man's  movements.  First  the  animals  for  ages 
making  their  way  through  the  hills,  then  uncivilized  man 
in  pursuit  of  game,  then  the  trapper  and  frontiersman 
following  in  their  trail;  then  probably  the  army  officer 
discovering  a  pass  and  then  the  surveyor  and  the  rail- 
road, all  following  the  road  indicated  by  nature.  In 
dozens  of  places  on  earth  just  this  development  has  ensued. 

For  long  ages  navigable  rivers  have  been  favored  high- 
ways. Wherever  the  fall  line  was  encountered  at  the 
edge  of  the  hilly  Piedmont  country  there  too  has  man 


EAETH  AND  MAN  31 

built  his  towns.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  has  a  drainage 
basin  of  over  19,000,000  square  miles,  while  the  Pacific 
has  only  8,660,000.  Rivers  facilitate  trade  and  inter- 
course. Africa  has  nothing  to  compare  with  the  Amazon 
or  the  Missouri.  The  Yangtse  and  Hoangho  are  the 
source  of  China's  prosperity  as  was  the  Nile  of  ancient 
Egypt. 

Islands  in  favorable  climes  are  densely  populated. 
Java  has  a  density  of  587  to  the  square  mile;  Gilbert 
Islands  of  Great  Britain,  1254.  The  Islands  of  Den- 
mark have  a  density  of  269  as  compared  to  112  in  Jutland 
on  the  mainland.  Safety  and  fish  are  probably  the  two 
chief  factors  in  causing  this  density. 

Until  the  sixteenth  century  the  oceans  were  practically 
impassable,  until  the  nineteenth,  impassable  to  all  but 
a  handful ;  yet  man  has  at  some  time  and  somehow  made 
his  way  to  all  habitable  parts  of  the  earth. 

2.  Occupation. — "  Geographic  conditions  influence  the 
economic  and  social  development  of  a  people  by  the 
abundance,  paucity  or  general  character  of  the  natural 
resources,  by  the  local  ease  or  difficulty  of  securing  the 
necessities  of  life,  and  by  the  possibility  of  industry  and 
commerce  afforded  by  the  environment."  18  The  history 
of  America  affords  endless  illustrations  of  the  truth  of 
this  statement.  The  New  England  States  turned  from 
agriculture  to  manufacturing  and  shipping,  they  found 
slavery  generally  unprofitable  and  they  developed  the 
town  and  town  meeting  as  their  type  of  government; 
while  substantially  the  same  people  in  the  south  clung  to 
farming  largely  because  of  the  adaptability  of  the  land 
to  tobacco  and  cotton,  welcomed  the  Negro  slaves  and  made 
the  county  the  unit  of  government,  the  scattered  house- 
is  SEMPLE,  E.  T.  Influences  of  Geographical  Environment,  p.  43. 


32  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

hold  the  ideal  of  life.  There  is  no  more  interesting  con- 
trast in  our  history  than  the  antagonisms  between  the 
hill  whites  and  the  lowland  slave  owners,  indicated  by 
such  events  as  the  separation  of  West  Virginia  from  the 
mother  state  and  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  mountain 
counties  of  Tennessee  furnished  as  large  a  percentage  of 
Union  volunteers  in  proportion  to  population  as  did  any 
northern  district.  Since  man  must  live  on  the  "  free 
goods  "  of  nature  to  be  had  by  the  taking  or  must  produce 
for  himself,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  life  of  the  Eskimo 
must  differ  widely  from  that  of  the  West  African  Negro. 
In  Polar  regions  man  must  even  today  be  a  fisher  and 
hunter,  living  on  meat  alone,  unless  he  keep  in  touch  with 
other  people,  when  he  may  be  a  miner.  On  the  whole 
the  temperate  zones  have  been  most  favorable  to  him,  and 
no  great  civilization  has  arisen  as  yet  in  the  tropics.  By 
fixing  the  opportunities  nature  goes  far  towards  deter- 
mining the  type  of  the  development. 

3.  Direct  Physical  Effects. — "We  can  hardly  err  in 
attributing  the  great  lung  capacity,  massive  chests  and 
abnormally  large  torsos  of  the  Quichua  and  Aymara 
Indians  inhabiting  the  high  Andean  plateaus  to  the  rare- 
fied air  found  at  an  altitude  of  10,000  or  15,000  feet 
above  sea  level."  19  It  is  well  known  that  the  different 
parts  of  the  body  grow  and  mature  at  different  rates  and 
times.  If  food,  heat  or  clothing  be  lacking,  a  stunting 
may  result.  Alpine  or  boreal  races  are  usually  shorter 
than  those  of  the  lowlands  of  warmer  regions.  Transfer 
to  a  new  country  may  cause  marked  changes  for  reasons 
not  yet  fully  understood.  In  America  the  descendants  of 
Europeans  are  seemingly  considerably  larger  than  the 
average  at  home.  This  was  indicated  by  the  soldiers  in 

i»  SEMPLE,  E.  T.    o.  c.,  p.  34  ff. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  33 

the  Civil  War.  Professor  Boas  of  Columbia  University 
has  been  studying  recent  immigrants.  He  writes :  "  I 
think,  therefore,  that  we  are  justified  in  the  conclusion 
that  the  removal  of  the  East  European  Hebrew  to  Amer- 
ica is  accompanied  by  a  marked  change  in  type,  which 
does  not  affect  the  young  child  born  abroad,  but  which 
makes  itself  felt  among  the  children  born  in  America, 
even  in  a  short  time  after  the  arrival  of  the  parents  in 
this  country.  The  change  of  type  seems  to  be  very  rapid, 
but  the  changes  continue  to  increase  so  that  the  descend- 
ants of  immigrants  born  a  long  time  after  the 'arrival  of 
the  parents  differ  more  from  their  parents  than  do  those 
born  a  short  time  after  the  arrival  of  the  parents  in  the 
United  States."  20  These  changes  are  in  the  shape  of 
the  head  form,  hitherto  considered  very  fixed.  The 
Hebrew  becomes  more  long-headed,  the  Italian  more  round- 
headed.  Such  striking  conclusions  need  a  verification, 
yet  lacking,  before  being  unqualifiedly  accepted.  The 
Snake  Indians  of  the  Rockies  differed  much  in  stature 
from  the  Blackfeet  or  Sioux  of  the  plains. 

The  environment  by  fixing  occupation  may  in  large 
measure  determine  physical  characters.  Darwin  at- 
tributed the  thin  legs  of  the  Indians  of  the  Paraguay 
River  to  the  constant  canoe  life.  The  man  who  lives  in 
the  saddle  acquires  a  rolling  gait  when  walking  as  does 
the  sailor.  The  stooping  shoulders  of  the  farmer  are 
likewise  due  to  his  trade. 

A  very  important  and  practical  question  which  cannot 
be  finally  answered  at  the  present  time  is  whether  the 
blond  types  of  humans  can  survive  in  the  tropics.  In 
part  this  is  a  question  of  control  of  disease  but  it  has 
other  aspects.  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the 

20  BOAS,  F.     Changes  in  Bodily  Form,  p.  52. 


34  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

•white  races  cannot  permanently  endure  the  constant  heat 
and  the  effects  of  the  actinic  rays  of  the  sun.  "  Conse- 
quently we  find  that  man  is  invariably  covered  with  a 
pigment  which  acts  as  an  armor  to  exclude  the  more 
harmful  short  rays,  and  moreover  the  amount  of  pigment 
is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  intensity  of  the  light  of  the 
country  to  which  his  ancestors  have  proved  their  adjust- 
ment by  centuries  or  millenniums  of  survival  in  health 
and  vigor.  It  is  a  simple  matter  of  mathematics  to  show 
that  the  intensity  of  light  under  the  zenith  sun  in  the 
tropics  is  the  greatest  and  that  the  proportion  of  rays 
per  unit  of  surface  diminishes  as  we  go  north  in  propor- 
tion to  a  function  of  the  latitude.  In  addition  to  this  the 
further  from  the  tropics  we  go  the  greater  is  the  layer  of 
air  which  the  rays  must  pass  through  and  the  more  of 
them  which  are  absorbed.  .  .  .  Undoubtedly  the  Negro, 
when  in  the  shade,  is  able  to  radiate  heat  better  than 
whites  and  this  enables  him  to  keep  cool  in  the  tropics, 
but  puts  him  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  north  where  a  white 
man  can  keep  warmer  with  less  clothing  and  less  fire  in 
the  house.  But  it  is  a  secondary  cause  enhancing  the 
first,  because  when  it  comes  to  a  question  of  light  and  cold, 
nature  makes  no  mistake,  but  selects  a  color  to  exclude 
the  light.  Hence  in  all  cold,  light  countries,  i.e.,  steppes, 
plains  and  the  arctics,  there  is  pigmentation  of  a  color  in 
the  lower  end  of  the  spectrum,  red  or  yellow,  with  varia- 
tions of  brown,  olive  or  copper.  .  .  .  All  these  red  and 
yellow  colors  undoubtedly  enable  the  native  to  conserve 
his  heat  almost  as  well  as  the  white  man,  and  at  the  same 
time,  exclude  the  dangerous  short  waves." 21  Though 
the  individual  man  may  prosper  for  a  time  in  the  tropics 

21  WOODBUFF,  C.  W.     Effects  of  Tropical  Light  on  White  Men,  p. 
85  ff. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  35 

it  may  be  that  there  is  some  deep  seated  reason  for  the 
absence  of  third  generation  Europeans  in  India.  Our 
experience  with  the  polar  regions  is  too  meager  to  give  us 
the  basis  for  an  opinion  as  to  their  effects  on  the  race. 

The  barometric  pressure  at  sea  level  is  29.38.  The 
ordinary  changes  in  pressure  are  too  slight  to  be  noted. 
Yet  most  people  have  momentary  discomfort  when  de- 
scending in  an  express  elevator  from  the  top  of  a  high 
building.  Serious  results  ensue  from  sudden  changes  of 
altitude.  During  the  construction  of  the  tunnels  under 
the  Hudson  one  physician  is  stated  to  have  seen  2,400 
cases  of  "  caisson  disease,"  popularly  known  as  the 
"  bends,"  resulting  from  working  under  unusual  pressure ; 
while  Younghusband's  account  of  the  British  expedition 
to  Thibet  gave  many  amusing  accounts  of  the  attempts 
of  sea  level  dwellers  to  march  and  fight  at  high  altitudes. 
Railroad  circulars  seldom  mention  the  danger  of  going  to 
the  top  of  Pike's  Peak,  but  physicians  are  better  informed. 
Prolonged  residence  in  high  altitudes  is  thought  to  pro- 
duce definite  effects,  inasmuch  as  the  blood  gets  more 
oxygen  and  gives  off  more  carbon  dioxid. 

4.  Physiological  Effects. — In  spite  of  the  considerable 
overlapping  with  the  purely  physical  effects  it  seems  wise 
to  consider  certain  types  of  influences  under  this  caption. 
Every  one  is  conscious  that  his  feelings  vary  from  day  to 
day  and  that  they  are  influenced  by  climatic  conditions. 
Of  Buenos  Aires,  Dexter  writes : 

"  By  the  time  the  north  wind  has  reached  the  city  it 
has  become  so  overcharged  with  moisture  that  everything 
becomes  intensely  damp.  The  effects  produced  in  the 
human  body  are  a  general  lassitude  and  relaxation,  open- 
ing the  pores  of  the  skin  and  inducing  great  liability  to 
colds,  sore  throat  and  all  consequences  of  checked  perspira- 


36  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tion."  Of  the  dry  winds  of  Colorado  he  says :  "During  the 
prevalence  of  such,  the  humidity  is  invariably  excessively 
low,  and  in  the  dry  air  there  seems  to  be  set  up,  by  the 
movement  of  the  wind  particles  and  the  leaves  and  grasses 
set  in  motion  by  them,  an  electrical  state  which  in  some 
undetermined  way  makes  havoc  with  the  emotions."  22 

In  similar  fashion,  Huntington  writes :  "  In  eastern 
Turkey  the  hot  desert  wind  causes  the  whole  community 
to  become  cross  and  irritable.  I  have  there  seen  a  mis- 
sionary, a  man  of  unusual  strength  of  character,  shut 
himself  up  in  his  study  all  day,  because  he  knew  that  he 
was  in  danger  of  saying  something  disagreeable." 23 
Similar  reports  come  from  Italy. 

Hann  claims :  "  Damp  air  and  increased  pressure  have 
the  following  physiological  effects: — nervous  depression; 
quiet  sleep;  increased  elimination  of  carbon  dioxid; 
slower  circulation  of  the  blood.  Dry  air  and  decreased 
pressure,  on  the  other  hand,  have  these  effects :  —  nervous 
excitement;  sleeplessness;  quickened  pulse;  a  dim  skin 
and  a  decreased  temperature."  24  Dry  cold  and  dry  heat 
are  relatively  easy  to  endure. 

There  seems  to  be  reason  to  believe  that  the  connection 
between  climate  and  behavior  may  be  more  clearly  under- 
stood in  the  future.  Many  students  have  attempted  to 
establish  the  relationship  but  their  evidence  has  been  too 
vague  and  fragmentary  to  justify  very  definite  conclu- 
sions. The  contrast  shown  by  the  charts  on  page  37  may 
well  lead  us  to  expect  different  reactions  in  the  residents 
of  New  York  and  Denver. 

Hellpach  has  collected  considerable  evidence  showing 

22DEXTEB,  E.  G.     Weather  Influences,  pp.  81-82. 

23  HUNTINGTON,  E.     Civilization  and  Climate,  p.  47. 

24  HANN,  J.    o.  c.,  p.  57. 


EAETH  AND  MAN 


37 


Temperature 


80 

a 
80 

i 
40 

c 

20 

30 

20.80 

29.60 

20.40 

80 


i  I  1  I  I  i  I  1  S  i  I  i 

-•'**' 

.»-——» 

-=5^« 

;  —  ~> 

^ 

f 

X 

sxX 

\ 

•="• 

—  —*'- 

^ 

'* 

Barometer 


Humidity 


70 


60 


so 


40 


Wind.     Total  Movement  in  Miles 


woo 
8000 
7000 
6000 
5000 
4OOO 

A 

^ 

V 

\ 

v 

^_ 

s 

s* 

\ 

"v^ 

/ 

/ 

^.^ 

-^ 

^•^^ 

t»^r 

^ 

/ 

-^ 

X./' 

x_ 

-'"'-• 

-*•  ., 

—  — 

COMPARISON  OF  WEATHER  CONDITIONS  25 

in  New  York  City   ( )  and  Denver   (....)• 

the  influence  of  the  advent  of  spring  and  summer  on  con- 
duct which  indicates  that  some  real  causes  are  at  work: 
25  DEXTER,  E.  G.     o.  c.,  p.  88. 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


00 

co  co  t- 

os    . 

CO  IQ 

OS  CO  (M 

CM  00  00 

0 

q 

. 

00  00 

eo  co  O 

oo  os 

CM  co  PI 

I 

os  GO 

CD  CO  t» 

uo  o  o 

N 

pi 

cs  os 

~     ~.   s 

O  CM 

t-  CO  O 
CO  OO  OO 

0 

co 

I—I 

1 

OS  OS 

T*  co  co 

t*»  t*»  GO 

00  CS 

i*  OO  OS 

o  co  -i 

CO  PI  pi 

I1 

t-O 

os  o 

i—  i 

CM  CO  O 

oo  os  os 

Pi  "^ 

pi  co  os 

CO  PI  0 

* 

o  •<* 

00 

O  <M  OS 

o  o  os 

ss 

T»l  KS  CO 

pi  O  OS 

*•» 

I—I  I—I 

Pi  — 

^ 

co  pi 

I 

•<*  os 
o  o 

0  O  O 

3« 

O  OJ  O 

Pi   — 

pi  PI  Pi 

pi  "^ 

os  pi  pi 

••a 

O) 

CO  CO 

IQ  CO  •* 

00  CS 

CM  05  fr- 

^s 

0  —i 

O  0  0 

CM  /—  J 

Tt<  T*   CO 

pi  Pi 

pi  pi  pi 

pi    ~T 

00  PI  PI 

* 

CM 

1 

co  o 

—  pi 

(M  00  OS 

o  os  os 

CO  U3 

co  co  eg 

CM 

•^ 

os  co 

co  pi  oo 

00  00 

os  co  co 

|! 

os  o 

oo  oo  t~ 

<N  O  CS 

* 

os  '~ 

O  0  t- 

CO  (N 

o  e>)  oo 

1 

OS  OS 

CO  00  CO 

os  oo  i^ 

Pi 

| 

O  OS 

oo  cs  PI 
co  co  co 

"*  10 

co  pi  os 

8 

i 

2  -' 

1 

SB 

fi 

B 
O 

Legitimate  .  . 
Illegitimate  . 

1  s  J 

232 

mftm 

^t-.rinil  Oft 

Germany  .... 
Italy,  per  cen 

Insanity.  .  . 
Artistic  Ore 
Mental  Feat 

S 
1 

K 

d 

X 

I 


co 

(X 

= 


5 1 


EARTH  AND  MAN  39 

It  seems  impossible  to  explain  the  marked  rise  in  all  the 
tables  in  April  as  a  mere  coincidence. 

Very  recently  Huntington  has  published  the  accounts 
of  a  very  valuable  study  made  by  him  of  the  actual  work 
throughout  the  year  of  some  five  hundred  factory  opera- 
tives in  Connecticut,  some  three  or  four  thousand  in  cities 
from  Virginia  to  Florida  and  some  1,700  students  at  West 
Point  and  Annapolis  (the  students'  records  being  limited 
to  the  school  year).  His  results  were  compared  in  great 
detail  with  the  weather  conditions.  He  found  that 
barometric  changes  showed  little  influence,  that  humidity 
was  of  considerable  importance,  but  that  temperature  was 
more  decisive.  It  was  found  that  all  these  groups  were 
physically  most  active  when  the  average  temperature  was 
from  60°  to  65°,  that  is,  when  the  temperature  at  noon 
was  70°  or  over.  Mental  activity  reached  its  maximum 
when  the  outside  temperature  averaged  about  38°,  that  is, 
with  frosts  at  night.  He  found  that  steady  temperature 
was  not  favorable  and  that  the  best  work  was  done  when 
there  was  some  daily  change  but  sudden  violent  changes 
were  not  beneficial.  Moderate  changes  with  frequent 
cooling  of  the  air  gave  the  best  results.  There  was  a 
marked  reduction  of  the  work  in  very  dry  weather.  Very 
cold  weather  was  unfavorable  and  more  work  was  accom- 
plished on  cloudy  than  on  bright  days.27 

On  the  basis  of  his  studies  Huntington  believes  that  the 
most  important  climatic  factors  are:  (1)  the  mean  tem- 
perature month  by  month;  (2)  the  amount  of  change 
from  day  to  day  and  (3)  the  relative  humidity.28 

He  then  proceeds  to  map  the  world  to  see  in  what 
places  the  best  conditions  are  found,  that  is  where  the 

at  HUNTINGTON,  E.    o.  c.,  p.  8ff. 
28  ibid.,  p.  137. 


40 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


greatest  energy  will  be  developed.     He  finds  five  such 
areas:  (1)  western  and  central  Europe  to  the  borders  of 


EAETH  AND  MAN  41 

Rumania  and  northern  Italy;  (2)  North  America  east  of 
the  Rockies  from  southern  Canada  to  the  thirty-eighth 
parallel;  (3)  the  Pacific  Coast;  (4)  Japan  and  (5)  New 
Zealand  and  the  adjacent  corner  of  Australia.29  It  is 
most  interesting  to  note  that  these  are  the  seats  of  the 
most  progressive  civilizations  of  today. 

No  matter  what  modifications  further  study  may  neces- 
sitate it  would  seem  that  at  last  we  are  reaching  the 
point  where  definite  measurements  may  be  made  of  man's 
reactions  to  the  physical  world,  and  we  may  hope  for  much 
greater  knowledge  in  the  near  future. 

The  question  of  survival  in  the  tropics  has  been  men- 
tioned. That  change  of  residence  from  the  temperate 
zones  to  the  tropics  may  have  pronounced  effects  is  un- 
doubted. "  Practically  every  northerner  who  goes  to  the 
Torrid  Zone  says  at  first  that  he  works  as  well  as  at  home, 
and  that  he  finds  the  climate  delightful.  He  may  even 
be  stimulated  to  unusual  exertion.  Little  by  little,  how- 
ever, he  slows  down.  He  does  not  work  so  hard  as  be- 
fore, nor  does  the  spirit  of  ambition  prick  him  so  keenly. 
On  the  low,  damp  seacoast,  and  still  more  in  the  lowland 
forests,  the  process  of  deterioration  is  relatively  rapid,  al- 
though its  duration  may  vary  enormously  in  different  in- 
dividuals. In  the  dry  interior  the  process  is  slower,  and 
on  the  high  plateaus  it  may  take  many  years.  Both  in 
books  and  in  conversation  with  inhabitants  of  tropical 
regions  one  finds  practical  unanimity  as  to  this  tropical 
inertia,  and  it  applies  to  both  body  and  mind."  30 

5.  Psychical  Effects. —  Man  is  often  strangely  reluc- 
tant to  admit  that  earth  exercises  any  control  over  his 
ideas.  Yet  a  moment  of  reflection  will  show  that  there 

29  HUNTINQTON,   E.      O.    C.,   p.   250  ff. 
so  Ibid.,  pp.  41-42. 


42  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

are  such  influences.  All  our  knowledge  is  mediated  by 
the  senses  and  finds  its  source  in  the  world  about  us. 
Even  our  imaginations  are  bounded  by  details  which  we 
gain  by  personal  contact  or  in  some  indirect  way.  We 
never  dream  of  anything  really  new.  All  we  can  do  is 
to  put  together  in  some  new  combination  the  elements 
with  which  everyday  life  has  made  us  familiar.  On  the 
Isle  of  Man  in  days  gone  by  the  stealing  of  a  pig  or  chicken 
was  punished  by  death,  while  the  stealing  of  a  horse  was 
only  a  minor  offense.  This  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  the 
horse  could  not  be  taken  off  the  island  without  detection 
nor  could  it  be  long  concealed.  The  people  accustomed 
to  the  awful  heat  of  the  desert  pictured  the  place  of  punish- 
ment of  the  next  world,  Hell,  in  terms  of  heat ;  while  the 
Eskimo,  accustomed  to  great  cold,  thought  a  place  of  con- 
stant heat  would  be  most  desirable  and  to  him  it  became 
Heaven.  Our  languages  will  show  our  main  interests. 
The  Samoyedes  of  northern  Russia  have  a  dozen  terms  to 
distinguish  the  shades  of  brown  and  gray  of  their  reindeer, 
while  the  Malay  vocabulary  is  rich  in  nautical  terms.  Our 
language  reflects  also  the  relative  development  of  our 
senses.  The  qualities  of  colors,  the  vibrations  of  tones 
are  carefully  worked  out  and  we  have  a  great  series  of  de- 
scriptive adjectives.  On  the  other  hand,  so  defective  is 
our  sense  of  smell  that  accurate  definitions  of  odors  are 
practically  impossible.  "In  all  the  forms  of  its  creeds 
and  cults,  humanity  does  not  seem  to  be  able  to  get 
away  from  its  earthly  patterns.  The  Elysian  fields,  the 
Valhalla,  the  life  that  now  is  reflected  upon  the  life 
beyond,  are  all  shaped  after  models  familiar  upon  the 
earth." 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  his  career  man  was  in  utter 
ignorance  of  the  nature  of  the  earth.     It  is  not  too  much 


43 

to  say  that  these  unknown  elements  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered as  being  in  his  environment.  Hence  it  follows  that 
man's  discoveries  are  constantly  changing  in  a  real  sense 
the  world  in  which  he  lives.  It  is  one  world  when  he  knows 
a  few  of  the  properties  of  wood  and  stone.  It  is  another 
when  he  discovers  the  metals,  learns  to  use  copper,  tin, 
zinc,  gold,  silver,  iron,  and  yesterday  platinum  and  alum- 
inum, today  radium. 

There  can  be  no  greater  mistake  than  to  think  of  the 
physical  environment  as  fixed  and  unchanging,  though 
that  mistake  is  far  from  rare.  Geology  was  once  taught 
as  if  the  earth  were  completed  ages  ago.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  is  changing  as  rapidly  today  as  ever,  so  far  as  we 
can  tell.  The  formation  of  rocks  and  their  gradual  dis- 
integration under  the  influence  of  snow,  rain  and  wind 
is  still  going  on.  Change,  eternal  change,  is  the  one  great 
fact  in  nature. 

Our  evidence  shows  that  the  physical  contour  of  the  earth 
has  been  greatly  altered  in  the  course  of  time.  We  know 
that  the  Appalachian  Mountains  are  but  the  stumps  left 
of  a  great  range.  We  know  that  there  were  four  (possi- 
bly five)  glacial  epochs  when  the  ice  sheet  covered  North 
America  as  far  south  as  Pennsylvania  and  Missouri. 
Sometime  during  this  period  the  Great  Lakes  came  into 
existence.  The  cause  of  these  epochs,  their  duration,  their 
disappearance  and  their  effect  upon  organic  life  are  some 
of  the  most  fascinating  puzzles  of  history.  Oceans  now 
exist  where  once  were  dry  land  and  mountain  ranges, 
whose  slopes  were  once  ocean  beaches. 

It  is  evident  too  that  the  climate  of  any  given  area  of  the 
earth  has  often  undergone  tremendous  changes.  Iceland 
was  once  a  subtropical  country  with  a  flora  resembling  that 
of  Florida,  rather  than  its  own.  All  the  country  recently 


44  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

labeled  as  the  Great  American  Desert  was  once  a  moist, 
fertile  land,  densely  populated  by  animals.  Now  these 
great  herds  are  gone  and  the  Great  Salt  Lake  is  but  a 
puddle  in  comparison  to  its  ancient  self  when  it  had  an 
outlet  to  the  Pacific.  It  appears  that  west  Central  Asia 
has  been  drying  up  throughout  all  recorded  time.  Hunt- 
ington  says :  "  If  it  be  proved  that  the  climate  of  any 
region  has  changed  during  historic  times,  it  follows  that 
the  nature  of  the  geographic  provinces  concerned  must 
have  been  altered  more  or  less.  For  example,  among  the 
human  inhabitants  of  Central  Asia  widespread  poverty, 
want  and  depression  have  been  substituted  for  comparative 
competence,  prosperity  and  contentment.  Disorder,  wars 
and  migrations  have  arisen.  Race  has  been  caused  to 
mix  with  race  under  new  physical  conditions,  which  have 
given  rise  to  new  habits  and  character.  The  impulse 
toward  change  and  migration  received  in  the  vast  arid 
regions  of  Central  Asia  has  spread  outward  and  involved 
all  Europe  in  the  confusion  of  the  Dark  Ages.  And  more 
than  this,  the  changes  of  climate  which  affected  Central 
Asia  were  not  confined  to  that  region  apparently,  but  ex- 
tended over  a  large  part  of  the  inhabited  earth."  32  In 
1911  and  1912  Huntington  had  opportunity  to  examine 
some  450  big  trees  of  California  which  varied  in  age  from 
230  to  3200  years.  Eighty  were  over  2000  years  old. 
Judging  from  the  width  of  the  rings  the  sequoia  grew  on 
the  average  of  30  per  cent  faster  at  the  time  of  Christ 
than  it  did  A.D.  1500.33  In  our  own  arid  southwest  there 
are  many  evidences  of  an  earlier  civilization  when  large 
areas  were  cultivated  both  with  and  without  irrigation. 
The  Pimas  call  these  people  the  Hohokam  or  "  perished 

82  HUNTINGTON,  E.    The  Pulse  of  Asia,  pp.  15,  16. 

33  HUNTINGTON,  E.    American  Historical  Review,  January,  1913. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  45 

ones."  Mr.  Huntington  has  recently  made  some  most 
interesting  studies  in  this  country.  Of  the  Santa  Cruz 
Valley  in  New  Mexico  he  writes :  "  The  part  of  the  valley 
which  is  now  capable  of  cultivation  contains  ruins  which 
indicate  that  all  the  available  land  was  utilized  in  the 
past.  Below  the  point  where  irrigation  is  now  possible 
there  are  three  large  groups  of  ruins,  and  the  three  together 
must  have  had  as  many  people  as  the  higher  regions  where 
there  is  still  water.  In  other  words,  it  seems  as  if  the 
Santa  Cruz  Valley  once  had  at  least  twice  as  many  people 
as  it  could  at  present  support,  and  half  of  these  lived 
where  the  white  man  could  not  now  get  a  living  from 
agriculture."  34 

The  question  over  which  scientists  are  now  puzzling 
is  whether  these  and  other  changes  come  in  cycles.  There 
are  many  who  believe  that  there  is  a  periodicity  in  the 
sun  spots  and,  correspondingly,  periods  of  greater  evapora- 
tion and  rainfall  on  earth.  The  decision  must  be  left  to 
the  future. 

Certain  other  changes  are  also  clear.  The  rivers  of 
the  world  are  building  great  alluvial  deltas  out  of  the  ma- 
terial taken  from  the  hills.  Thus  through  the  ages  the 
Mississippi  has  made  its  delta  from  Cairo,  Illinois,  to  its 
present  mouth.  It  annually  carries  to  the  sea  225,000 
acre  feet  of  fertile  soil  and  builds  new  land  for  future 
men.  That  this  process  may  involve  serious  loss  to  exist- 
ing society  is  also  evident. 

Now  all  these  changes,  whether  the  yearly  cycle  of 
temperature,  or  the  greater  pulsations  as  they  have  been 
called,  involve  constant  readjustments  of  life.  Sudden 
changes  are  always  most  dangerous.  Even  change  in  food 
and  drink  may  produce  serious  results.  There  are  many 

34  HUNTINGTON,  E.    Report  of  Smithsonian  Institute,  1912,  p.  393. 


46          THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

small  ponds  and  streams  which  occasionally  go  dry  with 
great  loss  of  life.  Man  prepares  for  the  coming  winter, 
but  the  earthquake,  tidal  wave  or  volcanic  eruption  finds 
him  helpless.  If  the  coal  supply  failed  this  year  our 
civilization  might  easily  perish.  Realizing  that  at  some 
period  it  will  fail,  our  ingenuity  may  enable  us  to  find 
some  substitute.  Tides,  winds  and  sun  rays  will  some 
day  be  valued  sources  of  energy. 

Against  the  minor  changes  of  storm  and  frost  man  easily 
protects  himself.  Not  so,  however,  the  lower  forms  of 
life.  Frost  indeed  simplifies  man's  problems  by  killing 
his  insect  pests.  Winter  in  the  colder  regions  destroys 
countless  myriads  of  organisms.  Some  scheme  of  sus- 
pended animation  as  it  were  must  be  evolved  if  any  are 
to  survive.  Nature  is  fertile  in  inventions.  By  means 
of  roots,  unaffected  by  freezing  and  seeds  which  lie  on 
the  ground  and  germinate  the  next  year,  she  saves  her 
plants.  For  the  animals  there  are  eggs  to  hatch  the  next 
year,  larvae  to  penetrate  the  earth,  cocoons  from  which 
the  new  form  comes,  hibernation  for  bears,  migration  for 
birds,  while  every  rotten  log  or  hollow  tree  literally  teems 
with  dormant  life. 

"  The  animal  lives  in  an  environment  which  is  con- 
stantly changing.  Its  spontaneous  movements  are  con- 
stantly bringing  it  into  different  conditions.  It  tends 
to  regulate  its  internal  processes  by  selecting  the  point  in 
the  environment  in  which  its  internal  processes  are  not 
disturbed." 3JJ  The  mollusca  living  in  the  tide  lines 
must  be  small  enough  to  find  protection  by  creeping  into 
crevices  of  the  rocks  unless,  as  is  usually  the  case,  they 
have  a  strong  pedal  sucker  which  enables  them  to  remain 
fixed.  The  blood  temperature  of  hibernating  rodents 

ss  SHELFOBD,  V.  E.    o.  c.,  p.  29. 


EARTH  AND  MAN  47 

falls  to  about  40°,  sometimes  nearly  to  35°.  A  little 
oxygen  reaches  them,  but  so  little  is  required  that  immer- 
sion of  an  hour  in  carbon  dioxid  will  not  kill  them.  They 
must  be  fat  when  they  begin  the  long  sleep  and  must 
waken  gradually.  It  is  thought  that  if  their  temperature 
falls  too  low  they  awaken  automatically,  and  by  movement 
and  the  inhalation  of  oxygen  again  raise  their  temperature. 
The  differences  in  the  behavior  of  frogs  in  hot  and  cold 
water  is  interesting.  In  the  former  they  are  extremely 
lively,  and  as  the  temperature  drops  they  become  sluggish 
and  drowsy. 

Animals  show  marked  powers  of  readaptation  —  to 
avoid  the  use  of  the  word  reason  which  some  feel  is  a 
prerogative  of  the  human.  Our  common  chimney  swifts 
once  nested  in  hollow  trees  or  crevices  in  the  rock,  but 
they  accept  chimneys  as  satisfactory  substitutes.  The 
black-throated  hunting  and  other  ground-building  birds 
will,  if  their  nests  are  destroyed,  frequently  build  late  in 
the  season  in  trees.  Ducks  and  geese  that  are  hunted 
become  extremely  wary,  but  will  quickly  discover  and 
frequent  in  large  numbers  a  lake  where  shooting  is  pro- 
hibited. In  parts  of  Africa  because  of  the  constant  hunt- 
ing the  buffalo  feeds  only  at  night. 

Even  the  daily  changes  are  significant.  Sleep  results 
apparently  from  a  drugging  of  the  system  by  the  carbon 
dioxid  and  other  elements  produced  by  everyday  activity, 
which  are  less  rapidly  eliminated.  At  night,  therefore, 
the  eliminating  process  goes  on  till  a  balance  is  again 
secured.  Possibly  some  structures  are  due  to  those  daily 
changes.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  barring  of 
the  feathers  of  some  birds  is  due  to  the  low  blood  pressure 
and  poor  circulation  at  night. 

An  interesting  rhythm  is  shown  by  the  phosphorescent 


48  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

organisms  of  the  sea.  "  It  might  be  supposed  at  first 
thought  that  these  phosphorescent  organisms  are  not  ob- 
served to  emit  light  during  the  day  because  of  the  pressure 
of  sunlight,  and  that  if  taken  into  a  dark  room  they 
would  be  found  to  phosphoresce  just  as  brilliantly  as  at 
night.  Such  is,  however,  not  the  case,  not  a  spark  can 
be  elicited  from  them  even  by  vigorous  shaking,  so  long 
as  there  is  daylight  in  the  outer  world.  But  if  one  stands 
by  and  watches  in  the  dark  room,  as  twilight  is  falling 
outside,  although  the  organisms  have  been  exposed  to 
light  all  day,  one  observes  the  little  lamps  light  up  and 
flash  out  one  by  one  like  coruscating  diamonds  in  the 
darkness  till  the  whole  fish  is  studded  with  flashing  and 
disappearing  light,  a  glorious  sight  in  the  darkness  and 
stillness.  .  .  .  Regularly  every  evening  the  lights  come 
out,  and  as  regularly  every  morning  they  are  extinguished, 
although  all  the  intervening  time  the  tiny  living  creatures 
have  been  kept  in  darkness."  36 

It  should  be  noted  that  changes  within  the  body  may 
make  a  fixed  environment  act  as  a  stimulus.  Animals 
change  in  many  ways  when  physical  maturity  is  reached. 
Thus  the  queen  ant  remains  quietly  in  the  d#rk  nest  while 
young.  On  the  advent  of  maturity  she  leaves  the  earth, 
flies  toward  the  light  and  keeps  away  from  the  ground. 
When  fertilized  she  again  seeks  the  earth,  burrows  into 
it  and  starts  a  new  colony. 

The  rhythm  of  nature  can  hardly  fail  to  impress  the 
observer.  The  revolution  about  the  sun,  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  tides  and  the  waves  of  light  and  sound  illus- 
trate rhythm  in  the  purely  material  world.  Birth, 
youth,  maturity,  old  age  and  death,  show  the  cycle  of 
life.  The  alternating  periods  of  rest  and  activity,  the 

»«MOOBE,  B.    The  Origin  and  Nature  of  Life,  pp.  250-251. 


EAETH  AND  MAN  49 

pulsations  of  the  heart  and  the  inhalation  and  expiration 
of  the  breath  display  it  in  the  activities  of  organisms. 
Whether  such  rhythm  also  characterizes  human  institu- 
tions must  be  considered  elsewhere. 

Against  such  changes  as  have  come  in  western  Asia 
even  man  is  largely  powerless  unless  he  moves.  He  may 
invent  new  measures  which  enable  him  to  survive,  but 
more  likely  he  starts  his  migrations.  No  wonder  then 
that  Huntington  says :  "  Finally  it  appears  that  the 
changes  of  climate  have  caused  corresponding  changes,  not 
only  in  the  distribution  of  man,  but  in  his  occupations, 
habits  and  even  character."  37 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  accident  that  the  weather  is  the 
common  basis  of  conversation  the  world  over.  Each  and 
every  primitive  man  came  into  close,  daily,  personal  con- 
tact with  nature.  From  this  contact  he  had  to  get  all 
the  goods  of  everyday  life.  He  was  exposed  to  wind 
and  storm.  He  saw  the  sun  rise  and  set,  the  glory  of  the 
moon  and  stars.  Now  the  civilized  man  has  multiplied 
the  contacts  with  nature  in  a  sense  he  has  weakened  the 
force  of  each.  His  contact  becomes  more  and  more  at 
second  hand  insofar  as  the  great  fundamentals  are  con- 
cerned. Hence  he  often  ignores  or  denies  even  the  great 
guiding  forces  sketched  in  this  chapter.  Yet  in  the 
qualities  of  the  elements  of  the  earth  and  man's  adjust- 
ment thereto  is  the  basis  and  start  of  all  man's  vaunted 
achievements  as  well  as  the  limits  thereof. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOE  HEADING 

CHAMBERLIN,  T.  C.    Origin  of  the  Earth.    1915. 
CONN,  H.  W.    The  Story  of  the  Living  Machine.    1912. 
CHILE,  G.  W.    Man,  An  Adaptive  Mechanism.    1916. 

37  HUNTINGTON,  E.    The  Pulse  of  Asia,  p.  359. 


50  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

DEXTER,  E.  G.    Weather  Influences.    1904. 
HANN,  J.    Handbook  of  Climatology.    1903. 
HELLPACH,  W.    Geopsychischen  Erscheinungen.    1911. 
HENDERSON,  L.  J.    The  Fitness  of  the  Environment.    1913. 
HUNTINGTON,  E.    The  Pulse  of  Asia.    1907. 

"  The  Climatic  Factor  (as  Illustrated  in  Arid- 

America).    1914. 

"  Civilization  and  Climate.    1915. 

JONES,  H.  C.    A  New  Era  in  Chemistry.    1913. 
LANKESTER,  E.  R    The  Kingdom  of  Man.    1907. 
METCHNEKOFF,  E.    The  Nature  of  Man.    1903. 
MOORE,  B.    The  Origin  and  Nature  of  Life.    1912. 
SEMPER,  K.    Animal  Life.    1881. 

SEMPLE,  E.  T.    American  History  and  Its  Geographic  Con- 
ditions.   1903. 

Influence  of  Geographical  Environment.    1911. 
WOODRUFF,  C.  W.    The  Effect  of  Tropical  Light  on  White  Men. 
1905. 


CHAPTER  II 

MUTUAL  AID  AND  THE  STRUGGLE  FOR 
EXISTENCE 

We  have  seen  that  life  exists  because  of  the  nature  of 
the  elements  and  that  it  continues  to  exist  if  the  environ- 
ment is  favorable.  We  must  now  consider  the  various 
ways  in  which  the  different  forms  of  life  affect  each  other. 
The  reader  is  warned  not  to  interpret  all  the  phenomena 
to  be  mentioned  as  if  they  resulted  from  some  conscious 
purpose  in  the  plants  or  animals.  Most  of  the  service 
rendered,  or  the  harm  done,  results  solely  from  the  nature 
of  the  organisms.  Thus  plants  produce  purely  mechanical 
effects  of  the  utmost  importance.  By  forming  a  dense 
sod  they  keep  the  soil  on  the  hillsides  from  which  other- 
wise it  would  quickly  be  removed  by  water.  Their  roots 
extend  into  the  subsoil,  then  die  and  decay,  thus  making 
openings  for  air,  water  and  frost  which  tend  to  break  up 
the  soil,  to  expose  new  particles  of  plant  food  and  thus 
make  increased  vegetation  possible. 

Plants  absorb  a  considerable  part  of  the  carbon  dioxid 
given  out  by  animals.  Thus  they  help  to  make  the  air 
fit  for  animals  to  breathe  just  as  in  water  they  perform 
a  similar  service.  They  also  take  up  large  quantities  of 
water  from  the  earth  which  pass  into  the  air  through  the 
leaves,  the  amount  increasing  as  the  temperature  increases, 
diminishing  as  it  falls.  The  Washington  Elm  at  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts,  was  studied  by  Professor  Pierce 
of  Harvard.  He  reported  that  the  tree  bore  some  7,000,- 
000  leaves  having  a  surface  area  of  200,000  square  feet 

51 


52  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

or  about  five  acres.  It  being  estimated  that  one  acre  of 
grass  furnishes  6,400  quarts  of  water  in  twenty-four  hours, 
this  tree  supplied  some  32,000  quarts  of  water  daily.  The 
influence  of  forests  is  very  large.  They  reduce  the  mean 
temperature  of  the  air,  increase  the  humidity,  decrease 
the  violence  of  the  winds,  offer  protection  against  very 
hot  winds  and  regulate  to  some  extent  the  flow-off  of  the 
water.  Significant  as  these  mechanical  changes  are  they 
become  as  nothing  when  compared  to  the  chemical  changes 
produced  by  plants. 

The  common  chemical  elements  found  in  plants  are 
carbon,  nitrogen,  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Plants  get  the 
nitrogen  and  hydrogen  largely  from  the  soil,  the  carbon 
and  oxygen  from  the  air.  Now  there  is  very  little 
nitrogen  in  the  rocks,  whereas  it  forms  80  per  cent  of 
the  air.  How  is  it,  then,  that  cultivated  soil  contains 
from  .1  per  cent  to  .2  per  cent  nitrogen,  while  rich 
prairie  soils  have  perhaps  25,000  pounds  per  acre  in  the 
top  three  or  four  feet?  That  the  leguminous  plants 
(clover,  alfalfa,  peas  and  beans)  enriched  the  soil  and 
increased  the  yield  of  other  crops  was  known  to  the 
Romans  of  old.  It  was  not  until  1886  that  Hellriegel 
was  able  to  show  that  this  was  chiefly  due  to  colonies  of 
bacteria  which  collected  in  nodules  on  the  roots  and  were 
able  to  draw  the  nitrogen  directly  from  the  air  and  make 
it  available  for  plants.  It  is  estimated  that  an  acre  of 
alfalfa  adds  nitrogen  worth  at  least  $25.00  per  year  to 
the  soil.  Most  of  this  supply  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil  must 
have  been  taken  from  the  air  by  earlier  generations  of 
bacteria. 

Plant  tissues  contain  much  carbon.  Forty  per  cent  of 
the  weight  of  rye  straw  is  carbon.  An  acre  of  beech  forest 
consumes  almost  a  ton  of  carbon  yearly.  This  must  be 


MUTUAL  AID  53 

obtained  from  the  carbon  dioxid  which  forms  some  .04 
per  cent  of  the  air.  Under  the  influence  of  the  sun,  for 
the  process  takes  place  in  the  light  only,  plants  are  able 
through  the  green  substance  in  their  leaves  called  chloro- 
phyll to  appropriate  this  carbon  and  embody  it  in  their 
tissues.  No  animals  have  this  power  unless  we  make  an 
exception  of  a  few  lowly  forms  like  the  fresh  water 
polyps,  which  carry  within  their  bodies  algae  containing 
chlorophyll  and  thus  need  not  wholly  depend  on  an  out- 
side supply  of  proteids.  Animals  can  directly  utilize  a 
few  substances  like  salt  in  small  amounts  but  their  con- 
tinued existence  depends  on  the  "  predigested  food  "  pre- 
pared by  plants.  The  mere  existence  of  animals  then  is 
conditioned  on  the  existence  of  plants.  Even  the  flesh- 
eating  animals  form  no  exception  for  "  all  flesh  is  grass  " 
no  matter  how  many  intervening  incarnations  there  may 
be. 

In  time  the  plants  die  and  begin  to  decay.  That  is, 
their  substance  is  used  as  food  by  many  lowly  forms  of 
life  and  finally,  by  the  joint  efforts  of  different  bacteria, 
are  reduced  to  the  simple  forms  which  are  again  used  as 
food  by  plants.  This  decayed  vegetable  matter  we  call 
humus  and  few  plants  prosper  unless  it  is  present  in  the 
soil.  This  breaking  down  process  is  rather  complicated 
and  no  one  sort  of  bacteria  produces  all  the  changes.  The 
first  step  involves  the  decomposition  of  the  proteids  into 
ammonia.  This  is  changed  by  bacterial  action  into 
nitrites,  and  these  in  turn  by  union  with  bases  such  as 
calcium  and  magnesium  into  nitrates  and  made  available 
for  plants.  The  nitrite  and  the  nitrate  forming  bacteria 
exist  side  by  side  in  the  soil  and  work  together.  There 
are  also  other  bacteria  which  are  able  to  break  down  the 
nitrates  and  return  the  free  nitrogen  to  the  air.  In  a 


54          THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

sense  then  the  bacteria  in  the  soil  may  compete  with  the 
plants  for  food. 

It  is  evident  that  these  bacteria  are  performing  services 
of  the  utmost  importance  and  that  the  life  of  the  higher 
forms  would  be  impossible  without  them.  They  exist  in 
the  soil  in  incredible  numbers,  up  to  several  million  per 
gram,  the  greatest  number  being  immediately  below  the 
surface.  They  are  nature's  scavengers  destroying  organic 
compounds.  Some  of  them  will  live  in  ice  water  but  the 
great  mass  develop  at  a  temperature  of  70°.  The  non- 
spore-bearing  bacteria  will  perish  in  water  at  a  tempera- 
ture of  140°  to  150°  but  the  spore-bearing  sorts  will  sur- 
vive exposure  to  dry  heat  of  250°  and  boiling  for  an  hour. 

The  proper  decay  of  humus  depends  on  the  presence  of 
lime  and  certain  bacteria  which  draw  phosphoric  acid 
directly  from  the  rocks.  "  In  the  presence  of  carbonate 
of  lime  and  carbon  dioxid  the  insoluble  silicate  of  potash 
is  gradually  turned  into  carbonate  of  potash,  and  also  into 
other  compounds  of  the  latter."  1  Bacteria  aid  also  in  the 
decomposition  of  sulphur  and  iron. 

Organic  compounds  are  exceedingly  delicate  and  every 
one  knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  keep  them  unchanged. 
We  may  dry  the  fruit  or  meat  to  such  an  extent  that 
bacteria  does  it  no  harm,  but  ordinarily  the  apple  or 
potato  rots,  the  milk  sours  in  spite  of  our  utmost  pre- 
cautions. These  changes  may  or  may  not  be  to  our  liking. 
Some  of  them  we  welcome,  others  we  deplore.  The  sour- 
ing of  milk  is  due  to  a  species  of  bacteria,  but  if  other 
varieties  are  present  we  may  have  "  blue  milk,"  "  ropy- 
milk,"  "  red-milk,"  or  "  bitter-milk."  By  using  certain 
bacteria  and  yeast  we  produce  the  sour  milks  known  as 

i  LIPMAN,  J.  G.     Bacteria  in  Relation  to  Country  Life,  p.  293 
(most  of  statements  relative  to  bacteria  taken  from  this  book). 


MUTUAL  AID  55 

"  kefir,"  "  kumiss  "  or  "  matzoon  "  which  are  considered 
of  great  value.  The  ripening  of  the  cream  is  due  to 
bacteria  and  the  average  number  per  c.c.  of  ripened  cream 
is  about  500,000,000.  The  change  to  butter  and  cheese 
is  due  to  bacteria.  We  use  the  yeast  plant  in  the  making 
of  bread.  Hay  is  in  part  the  result  of  bacterial  action 
as  is  ensilage.  So  too  bacteria  are  used  in  the  retting 
of  flax  and  hemp,  the  tanning  of  hides,  the  fermenting  of 
tobacco,  the  manufacture  of  vinegar,  wine  and  beer;  in 
the  making  of  pickled  fish,  sauerkraut  and  dill-pickles  and 
in  the  purification  of  sewage. 

Thus  nature  shows  us  a  most  fascinating  cycle.  The 
elements,  taken  from  the  earth  or  the  air,  are  utilized  to 
form  the  bodies  of  plants  and  animals  and  finally  are 
returned  to  the  earth  to  be  used  again.  Thus  the  life 
that  now  is  depends  not  merely  on  the  cooperation  of  other 
forms  of  life,  but  also  on  the  life  that  was.  Paradox- 
ically enough  the  greater  the  mass  of  life  there  is  the 
greater  the  possible  increase  —  other  things  being  equal. 

Some  animals  also  help  in  preparing  the  earth  for  other 
and  higher  forms  of  life.  The  minute  protozoa  whose 
remains  constitute  our  beds  of  chalk  are  not  to  be  for- 
gotten. The  service  of  the  coral  polyp  in  building  the 
islands  on  which  man  later  lives  is  well  known.  In  an 
acre  of  soil  Darwin  showed  that  there  were  from  50,000 
to  500,000  earthworms,  each  of  which  passed  through 
its  body  some  20  ounces  of  earth  a  year.  On  two 
square  yards  studied  by  Darwin  the  amount  equaled  6.75 
pounds  and  8.38  pounds  or  at  the  rate  of  l^1/^  to  18  tons 
per  acre  per  year.  Working  their  way  through  the  earth 
they  open  roads  for  roots  and  rain.  The  soil  passing 
through  their  bodies  is  softened,  and  is  cast  on  the  surface 
at  a  rate  estimated  at  three  inches  in  fifteen  years.  They 


56  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

carry  leaves  into  the  soil  and  thus  aid  in  producing  the 
humus.  Thomson  states  that  in  Yorubaland  on  the  west 
coast  of  Africa  it  is  estimated  that  every  particle  of  soil 
is  brought  to  the  surface  once  in  twenty-seven  years. 
Said  Darwin :  "  It  may  be  doubted  whether  there  are 
many  other  animals  which  have  played  so  important  a 
part  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  have  these  lowly  organ- 
ized creatures."  2  Ants  and  other  insects  perform  similar 
services. 

Another  type  of  dependence  must  be  noted.  The 
digestive  tract  of  all  the  higher  animals  is  densely  popu- 
lated, from  a  few  hours  after  birth  till  death  by  great 
numbers  of  micro-organisms.  Says  Herter :  "  There  is 
not  the  least  doubt  that  in  some  way  —  a  rather  intricate 
way  —  these  normal  and  dominant  flora  of  the  intestine 
exert  a  protective  action  on  the  whole  body.  This  pro- 
tective action  is  complex  in  operation,  but  consists  at  least 
in  part  of  a  preemptive  effect  on  the  intestinal  domain, 
by  which  other  types  of  bacteria  are  in  large  degree  ex- 
cluded. It  is  impossible  to  avoid  introducing  into  the 
digestive  tract  many  bacteria  which  would  prove  undesir- 
able permanent  tenants,  and  these  are  successfully  dis- 
couraged from  gaining  a  foothold  by  the  motile  biological 
activities  of  the  more  permanent  and  better  adapted 
bacterial  guests."  3  If  the  native  flora  are  destroyed  or 
injured  "  wild  "  types  may  be  introduced  and  this  Met- 
chinikoff,  one  of  the  most  eminent  biologists,  believed  to  be 
a  common  cause  of  suffering  and  premature  death.  This 
idea  is  not  universally  accepted,  and  many  still  believe 
this  natural  flora  to  be  neutral  in  influence  rather  than 
helpful.  With  reference  to  other  types  we  must  recognize 

2  THOMSON,  J.  A.     Darwinism  and  Human  Life,  pp.  56-59. 
s  HERTER,  C.  A.     Biological  Aspects  of  Human  Problems,  p.  130. 


MUTUAL  AID  57 

probably  that  living  within  our  bodies,  by  their  life  and 
death  many  poisons  are  produced  which  are  directly  in- 
jurious to  the  body.  From  this  standpoint  health  depends 
upon  a  nice  adjustment  between  the  natural  defenses  of 
the  body  and  the  attacks  of  the  invaders.  Some  of  the 
evil  effects  will  be  considered  later. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  saw  that  the  presence  of 
life  in  any  area  depended  upon  certain  physical  conditions. 
It  must  now  be  noted  that  the  presence  of  any  of  the 
higher  types  of  life  depends  also  upon  the  presence  of 
certain  other  types.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  series  of 
interrelations  reaching  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
forms.  Wherever  conditions  are  favorable  the  mass  of 
the  lowest  forms  is  almost  beyond  comprehension.  I  have 
seen  a  small  pool  in  Mississippi  containing  much  decaying 
matter  so  densely  inhabited  that  the  surface  was  kept  in 
constant  motion  with  a  bubbling  as  of  a  small  brook.  To 
this  aggregation  of  small  plants  and  animals  in  water  we 
give  the  collective  name  plankton.  In  Lake  Michigan 
Shelf ord  found  11.5  c.c.  of  this  plankton  in  each  cubic 
meter  of  water.  He  states  that  if  the  inhabitants  of  Chi- 
cago drink  daily  2,000,000  quarts  of  unfiltered  water  they 
imbibe  therewith  ten  solid  quarts  of  plants  and  animals. 
He  reports  that  in  some  of  the  European  lakes  ten  times 
this  amount  is  found.  In  the  Illinois  River  71.36  c.c.  were 
found,  and  in  an  Indiana  lake  684  c.c.  The  largest 
amount  was  present  from  April  to  June,  the  least  in  De- 
cember and  January.4  The  abundance  of  plant  growth 
depends  upon  the  amount  of  all  the  necessary  foodstuffs. 
If  any  one  is  absent  growth  is  stopped.  As  a  rule  the  older 
and  quieter  the  body  of  water  the  greater  the  plant  life. 
Within  certain  limits  this  is  also  true  of  animal  life.  The 

*SHELFOED,  V.  E.    o.  c.,  p.  67. 


58  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

oldest  pond  may  show  an  excess  of  carbon  dioxid  or  too 
little  oxygen,  or  offer  no  good  breeding  place  for  many  spe- 
cies of  fish.  In  such  ponds  the  relations  of  animals  and 
plants  are  most  interesting.  Floating  plants  gather  on  the 
stems  of  the  larger  rooted  varieties.  Hither  come  snails 
and  other  animals  seeking  food.  They  too  attach  them- 
selves to  the  stems  or  leaves  finding  there  protection  against 
currents,  shelter  from  excessive  light  and  opportunities  for 
laying  their  eggs.  Some  indeed  depend  more  directly 
upon  plants.  Certain  leaf-eating  beetles  are  aquatic  in 
their  early  stages.  They  have  no  gills,  but  attach  them- 
selves to  plants  from  which  they  get  a  direct  supply  of 
oxygen  even  under  the  water. 

So  many  and  so  varied  are  the  interrelations  between 
the  highest  and  the  lowest  forms  of  life  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  exaggerate  them  and  almost  impossible  for 
one  not  a  close  student  of  zoology  to  realize  their  extent 
and  significance.  Volumes  of  illustrations  could  be 
given.  Here  space  permits  reference  only  to  a  few  of  the 
different  types  of  relationship.  Under  the  title  "  ecol- 
ogy "  great  attention  is  now  being  given  to  this  study  of 
community  life,  particularly  of  animals.  It  is  believed 
that,  under  similar  conditions  the  world  over,  there  will 
be  found  animals  not  necessarily  the  same,  but  filling  the 
same  niches  in  the  scheme. 

In  the  world  of  water  crustaceans  are  the  most  impor- 
tant invertebrates,  "the  entomostraca  being  from  the 
standpoint  of  food  supply  to  the  water  what  rooted  plants 
are  on  the  land,  one  of  the  things  to  which  food  inter- 
action can  be  traced."  This  food  dependence  is  well 
shown  by  Shelford  in  the  following  diagram. 


MUTUAL  AID 


59 


1 

j_ 

^     '         '  -  — 
Algat 

-Z-1 

0 

1 

—   2^            Small  Aquatic  Insecti 

(           Largt  Aquath  Inttatt 

Decaying 
Vegetation 

\Y 

FOOD  KELATIONS  OF  AQUATIC  ANIMALS.    ABBOWS  POINT  FBOII  OR- 
GANISMS EATEN  TO  THOSE  DOING  THE  EATING 

"  Let  us  assume  that  because  of  some  unfavorable  condi- 
tions in  a  pond  during  their  breeding  period  the  black  bass 
decreased  markedly.  The  pickerel,  which  devour  young 
bass,  must  feed  more  extensively  upon  insects.  The  de- 
creased number  of  black  bass  would  relieve  the  drain  upon 
the  crayfishes,  which  are  eaten  by  bass;  crayfishes  would 
accordingly  increase  and  prey  more  heavily  upon  the 
aquatic  insects.  This  combined  attack  of  pickerel  and 
crayfishes  would  cause  insects  to  decrease  and  the  number 
of  pickerel  would  fall  away  because  of  the  decreased  food 
supply.  Meanwhile  the  bullheads,  which  are  general 
feeders  and  which  devour  aquatic  insects,  might  feed  more 
extensively  upon  mollusks  because  of  the  decrease  of  the 
former,  but  would  probably  decrease  also  because  of  the 
falling  off  of  their  main  article  of  diet.  We  may  thus 
reasonably  assume  that  the  black  bass  would  recover  its 
numbers  because  of  the  decrease  of  pickerel  and  bull- 
heads, the  enemies  of  its  young."  5 

The  great  advantage  which  animals  have  over  plants 
as  regards  food  grows  out  of  their  power  of  motion.  If 

&  SHELFOBD,  V.  E.    o.  c.,  p.  70. 


60  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  supply  is  inadequate  in  one  place  they  may  go  in 
search  of  another,  though  it  is  to  be  recognized  that  the 
search  is  not  always  successful. 

In  return  for  the  contributions  made  by  plants  to 
animals,  the  latter  often  perform  services  of  highest  im- 
portance to  plants.  Chief  of  these  is  perhaps  the  fertil- 
izing of  the  flowers.  Many  varieties  produce  on  one  plant 
flowers  having  only  pistils  or  stamens,  and  the  pollen  must 
be  carried  either  by  the  wind  or  by  insects.  Other  flowers 
are  so  shaped  that  only  by  some  outside  agency  can  the 
pollen  reach  the  pistil  even  though  both  are  present.  The 
fig  has  its  flowers  inside  a  tube  into  which  certain  insects 
must  crawl.  Every  one  has  watched  the  bees  gathering 
honey  in  the  flowers  and  incidentally  and  unwittingly 
getting  on  their  bodies  pollen  which  they  carry  to  other 
plants  and  thus  cross-fertilize  them.  Without  such  co- 
operation many  species  would  perish.  Thomson  in  happy 
fashion  enlarges  one  of  Darwin's  illustrations :  "  *  Plants 
and  animals  remote  in  the  scale  of  nature  are  bound 
together  by  a  web  of  complex  relations.  ...  I  have  also 
found  that  the  visits  of  bees  are  necessary  for  the  fertiliza- 
tion of  some  kinds  of  clover, —  thus  100  heads  of  red 
clover  (Trifolium  pratense)  produced  27,000  seeds,  but 
the  same  number  of  protected  heads  produced  not  a  single 
seed.  Humble  bees  alone  visit  red  clover,  as  other  bees 
cannot  reach  the  nectar.  .  .  .  We  know  that  the  red 
clover  imported  to  New  Zealand  did  not  bear  fertile  seeds 
till  humble  bees  were  also  imported.  The  number  of 
humble  bees  in  any  district  depends  in  great  measure  on 
the  number  of  field  mice  which  destroy  their  combs  and 
nests ;  and  Colonel  Newman,  who  has  long  attended  to  the 
habits  of  humble  bees,  believes  that  more  than  two-thirds 
of  them  are  thus  destroyed  all  over  England.'  Now  the 


MUTUAL  AID  61 

number  of  mice  is  largely  dependent,  as  every  one  knows, 
on  the  number  of  cats ;  and  Colonel  Newman  says :  '  Near 
villages  and  small  towns  I  have  found  the  nests  of  humble 
bees  more  numerous  than  elsewhere  and  this  I  attribute 
to  the  number  of  cats  that  destroy  the  mice.'  Thus  we 
may  say  with  Darwin  that  next  year's  crop  of  purple  clover 
is  influenced  by  the  number  of  humble  bees  in  the  district, 
which  varies  with  the  number  of  field  mice,  that  is  to 
say,  with  the  number  of  cats." 6  This  involves  a  tre- 
mendous amount  of  labor.  A  red  clover  blossom  contains 
less  than  one-eighth  grain  of  sugar.  There  are  7,000 
grains  in  a  pound.  The  bee  must  visit  some  56,000  clover 
heads  inserting  its  proboscis  into  some  60  florets  on  each 
head  thus  repeating  the  operation  3,360,000  times  to  get 
a  pound  of  honey. 

"  More  than  two  thousand  years  ago  Herodotus  observed 
a  curious  custom  in  Egypt.  At  a  certain  season  of  the 
year,  the  Egyptians  went  into  the  desert,  cut  off  branches 
from  the  wild  palms,  and  bringing  them  back  to  their 
gardens,  waved  them  over  the  flowers  of  the  date-palm. 
Why  they  performed  this  ceremony  they  did  not  know; 
but  they  knew  that  if  they  neglected  it,  the  date  crop  would 
be  poor  or  wholly  lost.  Herodotus  offers  the  quaint  ex- 
planation that  along  with  these  branches  there  came  from 
the  desert  certain  flies  possessed  of  a  '  vivific  virtue ' 
which  somehow  lent  an  exuberant  fertility  to  the  dates. 
But  the  true  rationale  of  the  incantation  is  now  explained. 
Palm  trees,  like  human  beings,  are  male  and  female.  The 
garden  plants,  the  date  bearers,  were  females;  the  desert 
plants  were  males;  and  the  waving  of  the  branches  over 
the  females  meant  the  transference  of  the  fertilizing  pollen 
dust  from  the  one  to  the  other."  7 

»  THOMSON,  J.  A.    o.  c.,  p.  53. 

7  DBUMMOND,  HENBY.    Ascent  of  Man,  p.  242. 


62  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Animals  assist  greatly  in  the  spread  of  plants  and  trees. 
Along  the  fence  rows  appear  cherries,  sumac,  dogwood 
and  junipers  whose  seeds  have  been  deposited  by  birds. 
Squirrels  often  carry  walnuts,  chestnuts  and  acorns  con- 
siderable distances.  Many  seeds  like  burdock  or  cockle- 
burs  catch  in  the  hair  of  passing  animals  and  are  thus 
transported  to  new  locations. 

Every  observer  has  in  spring  time  watched  the  ants 
crawling  over  the  buds  of  flowers  and  at  first  doubtless 
feared  lest  they  do  them  damage.  Closer  study  shows 
that  the  ants  are  seeking  the  aphids  or  plant  lice  from 
whose  bodies  they  get  a  drop  of  liquid  of  which  they  appear 
very  fond,  sometimes  stroking  and  caressing  the  aphid  to 
stimulate  the  production  of  the  fluid.  Hence  aphids  have 
been  called  the  slaves  or  the  "  cows,"  as  Linnaeus  names 
them,  of  the  ants.  In  any  case  they  directly  furnish  food 
or  some  acceptable  stimulant. 

The  complex  social  life  of  bees  and  ants  is  so  often 
described  that  any  extended  account  is  unnecessary.  It 
is  worth  while  to  indicate  some  of  their  methods,  however, 
which  vary  greatly  according  to  the  species.  The  Amazon 
ant  "  exists  only  by  the  capture  of  slaves  and  in  that 
connection  develops  the  most  brilliant  warrior  talent  that 
we  know  in  the  entire  animal  kingdom.  Its  mandibles 
are  modified  to  be  solely  weapons  for  killing  and  are 
unsuited  for  domestic  occupations;  furthermore  it  has 
even  lost  the  instinct  of  feeding  by  itself  and  must  be 
fed  out  of  the  mouths  of  its  slaves."  Wasmann  estimates 
that  some  2,000  species  of  animals  are  found  in  associa- 
tion with  ants,  some  as  guests,  some  as  slaves,  others  as 
parasites.  Some  beetles  "  are  not  only  licked  by  their 
hosts  (first  step),  but  are  also  fed  regularly  from  their 
mouths  (second  step),  and  finally  also  the  larvae  of  these 


MUTUAL  AID  63 

beetles  are  reared  by  the  ants  like  their  own  brood  (third 
step)."  In  the  long  run,  this  leads  to  the  destruction 
of  the  ant  colony.  "  Certain  native  ants  even  keep  the 
eggs  of  plant  lice  with  their  nests  during  the  winter.  The 
sanguinary  robber  ant  occupies  herself  almost  exclusively 
with  hunting,  and  leaves  the  cultivation  of  plant  lice  to 
her  slaves."  The  hunting  ants  of  Africa  are  accompanied 
on  their  forage  by  "  a  host  of  guests,  particularly  of  the 
family  of  the  short-winged  beetles."  Other  ants  make 
web  nests  using  their  own  larvae  as  shuttles.  "  They  con- 
duct the  mouth  of  the  larva,  from  which  the  spinning 
substance  issues,  from  one  leaf  margin  to  another,  and 
thus  weave  their  nest."  8 

A  different  type  of  cooperation  is  seen  in  the  habits  of 
such  birds  as  cowbirds  in  America  or  the  herons  which 
accompany  the  herds  of  buffalo  in  Africa.  Here  these 
companions  either  feed  on  the  parasites  of  their  four- 
footed  friends  or  take  advantage  of  the  insects  attracted 
by  their  presence  or  disturbed  by  their  movements  through 
the  grass. 

Curious  indeed  are  many  of  these  relationships.  Cer- 
tain of  the  minute  mussels  attach  themselves  temporarily 
to  some  fresh  water  fish  like  the  minnow,  later  dropping 
off  far  from  the  starting  point ;  while  perhaps,  to  reverse 
the  relationship,  the  young  —  of  one  fish  at  least,  the 
bitterling,  are  for  a  time  parasites  in  the  gills  of  a  mussel.9 
A  more  direct  dependence  exists  in  the  case  of  the  para- 
sites which  infest  the  fur  or  feathers  of  large  animals. 
All  birds  and  mammals  continually  carry  with  them  such 
insects  as  lice,  fleas  and  ticks,  which  draw  their  nourish- 
ment from  their  unwilling  hosts.  Though  this  process 

s  Annual  Report  of  Smithsonian  Institute,  1912,  p.  455. 
9  THOMPSON,  J.  A.     o.  c.,  p.  55. 


64  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

is  often  irritating  the  burden  is  usually  small,  save  when 
the  parasites  are  the  carriers  of  disease.  Even  man  him- 
self is  rarely  free  from  such  companions  until  he  reaches 
a  relatively  high  standard  of  personal  cleanliness  while 
the  lower  ranks  of  society  are  continually  infested.  To 
this  parasitic  class  belong  a  few  forms  of  plant  life  such 
as  the  fungus  producing  the  disease  known  as  thrush. 

Much  more  serious  on  the  whole  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  welfare  of  the  invaded  organism  are  the  internal  para- 
sites, whether  plant  or  animal.  These  are  now  recog- 
nized as  the  causes  of  some  of  the  chief  diseases  to  which 
flesh  is  heir.  The  story  of  man's  attempt  to  conquer  these 
invaders  will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.  Here  the  fact 
must  be  noted  and  its  significance  indicated.  These  para- 
sites vary  in  size  from  the  minute  one-celled  forms  — 
some  of  which  are  probably  too  small  to  be  seen  with  the 
strongest  microscopes ;  some  that  we  have  not  yet  isolated, 
although  the  results  of  their  presence  are  only  too  well 
known  —  to  the  great  tapeworm  which  occasionally  dwells 
in  our  intestines.  We  know  three  forms  of  the  bacteria, 
of  which  the  smallest  are  the  cocci,  some  1/150,000  of  an 
inch  in  diameter.  The  rodlike  forms  (bacilli)  are  from 
1/25,000  to  1/4,000  of  an  inch  in  length  by  1/125,000 
to  1/6,000  of  an  inch  in  diameter;  while  the  largest 
spirilli  are  about  1/600  of  an  inch  in  length.  One  drop 
of  sour  milk  may  contain  40,000,000  bacteria.  Some  of 
these  are  never  found  in  man  but  are  common  among 
animals  as,  for  instance,  the  cholera  of  chickens;  others, 
like  measles,  chicken-pox  and  typhus  fever  so  far  as  we 
know  are  peculiar  to  man ;  while  many  others,  diphtheria, 
tuberculosis  and  anthrax  are  common  to  man  and  animals. 
We  now  know  that  some  organisms  like  those  causing 
malaria  and  yellow  fever  pass  one  part  of  their  life  cycle 


MUTUAL  AID  65 

in  the  bodies  of  the  mosquito  or  other  insects  and  by  them 
are  transferred  to  man.  In  all  such  cases,  the  lower 
forms  of  life  live  at  the  expense  of  the  higher  forms  and 
not  infrequently  destroy  them.  Plants  parasitic  upon 
others  —  as  the  mistletoe  on  the  oak  —  are  also  common. 

The  illustrations  already  given  make  it  clear  that  this 
series  of  relationships  has  many  sides  and  may  be  con- 
sidered from  several  viewpoints.  The  relations  of  the 
bee  and  the  clover  are  mutually  advantageous.  The  dog 
carrying  the  cocklebur  performs  an  unrequited  service. 
From  the  standpoint  of  the  mouse  his  relations  to  the 
cat  are  decidedly  one-sided,  and  man  is  far  from  pleased 
at  being  the  host  of  disease  germs.  Now  these  two  as- 
pects of  the  "  web  of  life  "  may  be  called  "  mutual  aid," 
or  cooperation,  and  "  the  struggle  for  existence,"  or  com- 
petition; both  of  which  are  of  such  tremendous  signifi- 
cance to  the  student  of  life,  though  in  the  last  century 
the  emphasis  on  the  latter  phase  has  largely  obscured  the 
existence  of  the  former.  We  thus  have  a  paradox.  Life 
depends  upon  life  and  this  involves  the  destruction  of 
life. 

Communities  rather  than  isolated  individuals  are  char- 
acteristic of  animals.  Plant  associations  are  accidental 
rather  than  voluntary,  but  animals  seem  to  prefer  the 
presence  of  their  fellows.  "  Whether  the  feeling  be  fear, 
experienced  at  the  appearance  of  a  bird  of  prey,  or  a  '  fit 
of  gladness/  which  bursts  out  when  the  animals  are  in 
good  health  and  especially  when  young,  or  merely  the 
desire  of  giving  play  to  an  excess  of  impressions  and  vital 
power  —  the  necessity  of  communicating  impressions,  of 
playing,  of  chattering,  or  of  simply  feeling  the  proximity 
of  other  kindred  living  beings  pervades  Nature,  and  is  as 
much  as  any  other  physiological  function,  a  distinctive 


66  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

feature  of  life  and  impression  ability.  This  need  takes 
a  higher  development  and  attains  a  more  beautiful  expres- 
sion in  mammals,  especially  amidst  their  young,  and  still 
more  among  the  birds ;  but  it  pervades  all  Nature."  10 

Whenever  man  has  entered  a  relatively  unpopulated 
continent  where  conditions  were  favorable  he  has  been 
amazed  at  the  abundance  of  wild  life.  "  I  found  the 
Cossacks  in  the  villages  of  that  gorge  in  the  greatest  ex- 
citement because  thousands  and  thousands  of  fallow  deer 
were  crossing  the  Amur  where  it  is  narrowest  in  order 
to  make  the  lowlands."  ll  "  For  several  hundred  yards 
from  the  shore  the  air  is  filled  with  gulls  and  terns,  as 
with  snowflakes  on  a  winter  day.  Thousands  of  plover  and 
sand  coursers  run  over  the  beach,  searching  for  their  food, 
whistling  and  simply  enjoying  life.  Further  on,  on  al- 
most each  wave,  a  duck  is  rocking,  while  higher  up  you 
notice  the  flocks  of  the  Casarki  ducks.  Exuberant  life 
swarms  everywhere."  12 

Men  now  living  can  recall  the  enormous  herds  of  bison 
that  roamed  the  Western  prairies,  the  passenger  pigeons 
whose  vast  flocks  almost  darkened  the  sun  and  broke  the 
branches  of  the  trees  on  which  they  settled  or  the  armies 
of  squirrels.  In  the  far  north  the  caribou  still  migrate 
in  companies  of  thousands.  Though  of  a  younger  genera- 
tion, the  writer  has  been  privileged  to  see  some  of  the 
rocky  islands  so  densely  covered  with  birds  that  one 
thought  the  surface  moved  when  they  took  wing.  He  has 
seen  prairie  chickens  leaving  the  wheat  stubble  of  Dakota 
by  the  hundreds  and  has  watched  in  early  spring  great 
companies  engaged  in  lovemaking.  Birds  ordinarily 
considered  as  rather  solitary  often  combine  in  large  flocks. 

i°  KBOPOTKIX,  P.     Mutual  Aid,  p.  55. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  48. 

•.->•- 

12  Ibid.,  p.  33. 


MUTUAL  AID  67 

The  great  winter  flocks  of  crows  going  to  and  from  their 
roosting  places  to  the  feeding  grounds  are  common  sights. 
I  have  witnessed  some  remarkable  flights  of  hawks  when 
for  several  consecutive  days  individuals  of  many  species 
drifted  lazily  by,  scores  being  constantly  in  sight.  I  have 
known  the  short-eared  owls  to  gather  in  large  companies. 
Blind  indeed  is  he  who  has  not  viewed  with  wonder  the 
migrations  of  the  birds  in  spring  and  fall.  Who  has  not 
awakened  some  spring  morning  to  find  the  fields  and 
woods  full  of  a  variety  of  birds  of  which  a  day  before 
only  a  few  could  be  found  ?  Who  has  not  been  thrilled  by 
the  melody  of  the  bobolink  or  admired  the  formal  columns 
of  the  geese  ?  These  migrating  groups  are  often  of  very 
distinct  species.  Eight  kites,  one  crane  and  one  peregrine 
falcon  are  reported  as  forming  one  motley  group. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  these  are  always  chance 
associations.  There  are  many  illustrations  of  a  definite 
purpose.  Pelicans  "  always  go  fishing  in  numerous  bands 
and  after  having  chosen  an  appropriate  bay,  they  form  a 
wide  half-circle  in  face  of  the  shore,  and  narrow  it  by 
paddling  towards  the  shore,  catching  all  the  fish  that 
happen  to  be  inclosed  in  the  circle.  On  narrow  rivers  and 
canals  they  even  divide  into  two  parties,  each  of  which 
draws  up  on  a  half-circle,  and  both  paddle  to  meet  each 
other,  just  as  if  two  parties  of  men  dragging  two  long 
nets  should  advance  to  capture  all  fish  taken  between  the 
nets  when  both  parties  come  to  meet."  13  Hunting  parties 
of  animals  are  well  known.  Monkeys  combine  to  get  food. 
Brazilian  kites  are  said  to  summon  assistance  if  the  prey 
is  too  large.  Kingbirds  frequently  combine  to  chase  a 
crow  or  hawk.  If  a  burying  beetle  discovers  a  dead  mouse 
it  summons  from  four  to  ten  others  to  help.  Crabs  have 

is  KROPOTKIN,  P.    o.  c.,  p.  23. 


68  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

been  known  to  work  for  hours  to  try  to  help  a  comrade 
that  had  been  put  on  its  back. 

In  our  climate  birds  scatter  somewhat  during  the  mating 
season.  Later,  flocks  of  young  birds  may  be  seen  gaining 
strength  by  many  flights  ere  they  join  in  larger  and  larger 
companies  for  the  southward  journey  which  takes  many 
of  them  even  to  South  America.  There  must  be  some 
advantage  in  these  associations.  Our  prairie  dogs  might 
live  so  far  as  conditions  are  concerned  scattered  over  the 
plains;  instead  they  live  in  great  villages.  Possibly  this 
lies  in  the  strength  of  numbers  and  the  better  chances  of 
protection.  Many  birds  such  as  cranes  or  parrots  post 
sentries  while  the  flock  is  feeding  or  send  out  spies  to  make 
sure  no  enemy  is  about ;  they  live,  save  during  the  breed- 
ing season,  in  flocks;  they  have  common  roosting  places; 
they  combine  against  enemies.  As  a  result,  they  reach  a 
considerable  age  and  have  few  large  enemies  save  man. 

The  great  power  gotten  by  bees  and  ants  as  a  result  of 
their  social  habits  and  division  of  labor  is  often  described. 
Observers  in  Africa  tell  of  the  warlike  ants  driving  all 
animals  before  them  on  their  marches. 

K"ow  it  is  to  be  noted  that  among  those  of  any  given 
species  there  is  little  direct  competition  but  rather  vast 
cooperation.  The  warning  against  common  enemies;  the 
care,  often  the  joint  care  of  the  young;  the  many  efforts 
to  assist  the  injured  and  the  combination  to  fight  the  in- 
truder are  all  opposed  to  purely  selfish  considerations. 
Save  where  sex  enters  in  they  rarely  fight  each  other.  No 
wonder  then  that  Kropotkin  writes  after  viewing  these 
animal  societies :  "  As  seen  from  the  above,  the  war  of 
each  against  all  is  not  the  law  of  nature.  Mutual  aid  is 
as  much  a  law  as  mutual  struggle."  14  Or  again :  "  '  Don't 

"KBOPOTKIN,   P.      O.   C.,   p.  22. 


MUTUAL  AID  69 

compete !  —  competition  is  always  injurious  to  the  species, 
and  you  have  plenty  of  resources  to  avoid  it.'  .  .  .  That 
is  the  watchword  which  conies  to  us  from  the  bush,  the 
forest,  the  river,  the  ocean.  *  Therefore  combine  — 
practice  mutual  aid.'  .  .  .  That  is  what  Nature  teaches 
us,  and  that  is  what  all  those  animals  which  have  attained 
the  highest  positions  in  their  respective  classes  have 
done."  15 

There  are,  to  be  sure,  illustrations  of  solitary  specimens 
of  social  animals  —  rogue  buffalo,  rogue  elephant  —  which 
seem  to  have  been  driven  out  of  their  groups.  There  are 
some  animals  among  the  carnivora  which  seldom  associate 
save  in  very  small  groups.  There  are  a  few  like  the  gorilla 
rarely  seen  save  in  family  associations  or  alone.  These 
are  extremely  exceptional  and  perchance  are  but  the  few 
survivors  of  groups  once  gregarious.  From  fish  or  insects, 
through  the  great  bird  and  mammalian  groups,  to  man 
himself,  association  and  the  resulting  cooperation  are  well 
nigh  universal. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  picture  more  striking  and 
spectacular,  hence  better  known.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  one 
of  the  functions  of  life  to  furnish  food  to  other  forms  and 
inasmuch  as  the  willingness  to  be  eaten  is  seldom  syn- 
chronous with  the  hunger  of  the  eater,  there  is  a  constant 
warfare.  Strength,  cunning,  fleetness  of  wing  or  foot  or 
the  maintenance  of  group  life  may  enable  the  individual 
to  survive.  Sooner  or  later  there  is  likely  to  come  the 
accident  or  sickness,  the  weakness  following  absence  of 
food,  the  moment  of  inattention  and  the  enemy  has  done 
his  work.  It  may  be  true  that  the  great  bulk  of  lives  lost 
are  those  of  the  young  and  untrained;  it  may  be  that 
sudden  temperature  changes  may  reduce  thousands  to 

15KBOPOTKIN,    P.      O.    C.,   p.    75. 


70  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

scores;  but  it  still  remains  true  that  the  destruction  by 
other  types  of  life  is  in  addition  to  that  wrought  by  physi- 
cal changes.  The  combined  results  are  enormous. 
Natural  death,  in  the  sense  we  use  the  term  (death  from 
old  age),  is  the  least  common  form  in  the  animal  world. 
Well  may  Roosevelt  say :  "  Civilized  man  now  usually 
passes  his  life  under  conditions  which  eliminate  the  in- 
tensity of  terror  felt  by  his  ancestors  when  death  by  vio- 
lence was  their  normal  end,  and  threatened  them  during 
every  hour  of  the  day  and  night.  It  is  only  in  nightmares 
that  the  average  dweller  ,in  civilized  countries  now  under- 
goes the  hideous  horror  which  was  the  regular  and  frequent 
portion  of  his  ages-vanished  forefathers,  and  which  is  still 
an  everyday  incident  in  the  lives  of  most  wild  crea- 
tures. .  .  . 

"  Death  by  violence,  death  by  cold,  death  by  starvation 
—  these  are  the  normal  endings  of  the  stately  and  beauti- 
ful creatures  of  the  wilderness.  The  sentimentalists  who 
prattle  about  the  peaceful  life  of  nature  do  not  realize  its 
utter  mertilessness ;  although  all  they  would  have  to  do 
would  be  to  look  at  the  birds  in  the  winter's  woods,  or 
even  at  the  insects  on  a  cold  morning  or  cold  evening."  ie 

On  the  whole,  the  lowest  forms  of  life  reproduce  most 
rapidly,  the  highest  the  most  slowly.  The  cholera  bacillus 
can  divide  every  twenty  minutes,  and  might  thus  in  one 
day  become  5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  with  an  esti- 
mated weight  of  about  7,366  tons.  An  annual  plant  with 
only  two  seeds  would  be  represented  by  1,048,576  in  the 
twenty-first  year.  The  descendants  of  a  pair  of  house  flies 
from  April  to  November  might  amount  to  214,577,844,- 
320,000,000,000,000,  while  the  young  of  a  single  pair  of 

i«  ROOSEVELT,  T.     African  Game  Trails,  pp.  20O-201. 


MUTUAL  AID  71 

mosquitoes  in  180  days  would  be  represented  by  the  figure 
2  at  the  left  of  one  of  these  lines  followed  by  a  full  row 
of  ciphers.  A  pair  of  robins  having  four  young  each 
season  and  these  reproducing  in  like  measure  would  have 
some  20,913,948,846  descendants  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years.  The  slowest  breeder  known,  the  elephant,  if  given 
a  life  of  100  years  with  an  average  of  ten  offspring  which 
reproduced  equally  would  have  some  19,000,000  descend- 
ants in  150  years.  Now,  in  actual  life,  no  such  reproduc- 
tion takes  place.  We  must  recognize  then  the  rapid 
possible  increase,  theoretically  speaking,  of  the  individual 
organism  and  also  the  relatively  fixed  total  aggregate  of 
any  species.  "  If  all  the  feeders  on  vegetable  life  were 
allowed  to  develop  absolutely  without  check  during  two 
successive  years,  the  first  of  them  would  see  every  green 
thing  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  the  second 
would  destroy  all  possibility  of  the  future  recurrence  of 
fully  90  per  cent  of  all  the  existing  plants.  .  .  .  Under 
normal  conditions,  and  in  the  long  run,  one  pair  of  moths, 
producing  say  500  eggs,  are  represented  next  year  by 
another  pair  of  the  same  species,  and  no  more:  that  is, 
out  of  500  eggs,  producing  500  caterpillars,  498  are  de- 
stroyed in  some  way.  .  .  .  The  important  thing  is  that  a 
species  abundant  in  number  of  specimens  has  become  so 
in  spite  of  the  combination  of  all  its  natural  checks  and, 
conditions  remaining  equal,  will  maintain  itself  in  the 
same  ratio,  just  as  a  rare  species  barely  maintains  itself 
against  the  combination  opposing  it."  17  These  checks 
are  weather,  disease,  animals,  birds  and  predatory  and 
parasitic  insects.  "  In  this  way  it  happens  that  after  a 
season  of  grasshopper  abundance  a  season  of  blister  beetle 
IT  SMITH,  J.  B.  Our  Insect  Friends  and  Enemies,  pp.  84-85. 


72  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

abundance  is  almost  certain  to  follow,  and  any  abnormal 
increase  of  the  former  is  almost  sure  to  be  checked  by  the 
corresponding  increase  of  the  latter."  18 

In  other  words,  neglecting  the  tremendous  destruction 
of  life  through  failure  to  develop,  whatever  be  the  reason, 
and  the  frightful  death-rate  through  storm  or  other  natural 
agency,  the  fact  that  all  life  depends  in  large  measure  on 
other  life  for  maintenance  establishes  what  may  be  called 
the  "balance  of  nature."  In  reality  we  have  then  an 
equilibrium  which  may  be  temporarily  upset  by  any 
change  in  the  conditions  of  life:  thus  giving  now  to  one 
group  of  organisms,  now  to  another,  a  peculiarly  favor- 
able chance  for  increase ;  but  at  the  same  time  setting  the 
bounds  to  this  increase  and  providing  the  basis  for  the 
reaction. 

It  will  not  be  specially  difficult  to  understand  this 
phenomenon  if  we  can  avoid  the  temptation  to  think  of 
this  struggle  for  existence  as  a  conscious  activity  on  the 
part  of  living  organisms.  Even  man's  actions  are  far  less 
deliberate  than  we  usually  think.  The  effort  to  preserve 
individual  life  and  that  of  reproducing  its  kind  both 
growing  out  of  the  nature  of  self  is  the  keynote.  Under 
favorable  conditions  there  will  be  both  growth  and  repro- 
duction. 

The  increase  of  any  type  of  animal  is  conditioned  in 
part  upon  the  available  food  supply.  Here  man  unwill- 
ingly and  often  unwittingly  acts  as  host.  He  plants  his 
crops  but  receives  undesired  cooperation  in  the  harvesting 
thereof. 

The  Year  Book  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  1904, 
estimates  the  damage  done  yearly  by  insect  pests  to  the 
various  crops  in  the  United  States  as  follows: 

is  SMITH,  J.  B.    o.  c.,  p.  100. 


MUTUAL  AID  73 

Percentage  Total 

Crop  of  loss  amount  lost 

Cereals     10  $200,000,000 

Hay     10  53,000,000 

Cotton    10  60,000,000 

Tobacco     10  5,300,000 

Truck  crops  20  53,000,000 

Sugars    10  5,000,000 

Fruits     20  27,000,000 

Farm  forests  10  11,000,000 

Animal  products 10  175,000,000 

Miscellaneous   crops    10  5,800,000 


Total     $595,100,000 

Natural  forests  and  forest  products 100,000,000 

Products  in  storage   100,000,000 

Grand   total    $795,100,000 1» 

Insects  are  the  most  numerous  of  all  the  animal  species. 
In  spite  of  their  vast  number  perhaps  not  more  than  five 
per  cent  do  any  great  harm  to  the  farmer,  yet  the  burden 
is  terrific.  In  1894  there  appeared  in  the  southern  coun- 
ties of  Texas  a  small  beetle-like  animal  known  as  the 
boll  -weevil.  It  takes  but  fourteen  days  to  develop  from 
egg  to  adult  and  the  progeny  of  a  single  pair  may  reach 
in  a  season  134  million.  For  some  years  it  attracted  little 
attention  but,  as  was  later  discovered,  kept  spreading  to 
the  extent  of  some  fifty  miles  a  year.  By  1912  it  had 
crossed  the  Mississippi  River,  by  1915  had  reached 
Georgia,  and  it  is  certain  now  to  spread  throughout  the 
entire  cotton-growing  South.  It  feeds  on  the  cotton  bolls, 
the  eggs  being  deposited  in  the  unripe  boll  which  is  de- 
stroyed as  the  insect  develops.  It  hibernates  in  cotton 
stalks  or  other  plants.  By  1903  it  was  thought  that  the 
damage  done  to  the  Texas  cotton  crop  was  some  $15,000,- 
000,  but  this  was  a  wet  season  and  particularly  favorable 
to  the  weevil.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  in  this  immigrant  the 
cotton  planter  finds  his  greatest  enemy,  and  as  yet  no 

19  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1904,  p.  464. 


74  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

enemy  has  been  found  to  check  it.  The  natural  enemy 
of  the  weevil  in  its  own  home,  an  ant,  apparently  will  not 
live  in  our  country,  hence  the  plague.  The  total  loss 
charged  to  its  account  down  to  1914  is  some  $500,000,000 
or  10,000,000  bales  of  cotton.  Seven  Mississippi  coun- 
ties in  1907  produced  171,790  bales.  The  boll  weevil 
entered  and  the  production  in  1909  was  89,577  bales;  in 
1910,  61,432 ;  1911,  37,816,  and  in  1912,  30,909. 

The  larvae  of  the  corn-root  worm  feed  upon  the  roots  of 
young  corn  and  sometimes  cause  the  loss  of  the  entire 
field.  This  worm  and  a  few  similar  species  probably 
destroy  two  per  cent  of  the  crop  year  by  year.  The  ear 
worm  eats  the  kernels  —  particularly  of  sweet  corn  of 
which  some  90  per  cent  of  the  ears  are  attacked  —  and 
destroys  not  less  than  two  per  cent  of  the  entire  crop. 
Another  two  per  cent  goes  to  the  chinch-bug.  About  fifty 
species  of  insects  attack  the  corn  and,  in  addition  to  the 
work  of  the  three  mentioned,  probably  reduce  the  crop 
another  two  per  cent,  making  a  total  of  eight  per  cent 
of  the  entire  crop. 

Of  the  cereals  wheat  suffers  most.  The  Hessian  fly, 
chinch-bug  and  grain  louse  are  its  worst  enemies.  In 
some  years  over  one-half  of  the  acreage  planted  has  been 
abandoned  because  of  the  Hessian  fly  alone.  In  1900 
Indiana  and  Ohio  are  estimated  to  have  lost  not  less  than 
$24,000,000  on  account  of  this  pest 

The  productiveness  of  the  apple  tree  is  reduced  5  per 
cent  by  the  woolly  aphis  which  attacks  its  roots,  2  per 
cent  by  the  borers,  and  10  per  cent  by  the  plant  lice, 
scale  insects  and  those  that  destroy  the  leaves.  The  cod- 
ling moth,  which  lays  its  eggs  in  the  young  fruit  through 
the  country  at  large,  causes  a  loss  of  not  less  than  20  per 
cent  of  marketable  apples,  while  some  estimates  place  the 


MUTUAL  AID  75 

loss  at  40  per  cent.  Add  to  this  loss  tlie  $8,250,000  spent 
yearly  for  spraying  and  the  codling  moth  has  caused  us  a 
loss  of  nearly  $20,000,000  yearly. 

The  damage  to  stored  products  is  greater  than  is  real- 
ized. Tobacco,  truck  crops  and  cereals  are  attacked  by 
worms,  beetles,  weevils  and  moths.  The  food  waiting 
consumption  at  the  house  is  visited  by  larder  and  ham 
beetles,  various  flies  and  moths. 

Mr.  Marlatt  is  then  justified  in  his  statement :  "  The 
losses  resulting  from  the  depredations  of  insects  on  all  the 
plant  products  of  the  soil,  both  in  their  growing  and  in 
their  stored  state,  together  with  those  of  live  stock,  exceed 
the  entire  expenditures  of  the  National  Government,  in- 
cluding the  enormous  pension  roll  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  Army  and  Navy."  The  damage  done  to  domestic 
animals  by  such  insects  as  gadflies,  botflies,  screw-worm 
flies,  ticks  and  lice  is  put  at  $175,000,000  yearly.20 

We  must  also  keep  in  mind  the  enormous  burden  im- 
posed upon  agriculturists  by  the  growth  of  weeds,  the 
yearly  loss  in  the  United  States  being  estimated  at  $100,- 
000,000.  Weeds  affect  agriculture  in  many  ways.  If 
plowed  under  they  may  furnish  humus  and  thus  be 
valuable.  When  growing  in  cultivated  fields,  however, 
they  are  injurious.  They  may  form  a  dense  mat  on  the 
ground  which  holds  moisture,  invites  insects  and  may 
introduce  disease.  In  other  cases  they  may  use  water 
needed  for  crops.  If  it  takes  several  hundred  pounds  of 
water  to  produce  one  pound  of  dry  stalks  the  loss  may 
be  serious  for  the  crop.  Furthermore,  weeds  may  appro- 
priate a  considerable  part  of  the  plant  food  in  the  soil 
and  finally  they  may  smother  the  crop  by  their  dense  rank 
growth.  The  wild  plants,  native  or  introduced,  frequently 

20  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1904,  p.  461  ff. 


76  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

show  such  virility  that  their  destruction  is  extremely  dif- 
ficult. Whenever  man  plows  a  field  and  plants  his  crop, 
he  destroys  thereby  the  bulk  of  the  native  flora.  Now 
it  may  be  that  some  one  or  two  species  are  so  persistent 
that  they  find  the  new  conditions  with  the  soil  mellow  and 
only  the  cultivated  plants  as  competitors  most  favorable, 
and  develop  to  the  extent  of  occupying  the  ground  and 
balking  the  farmer's  hopes.  In  the  Eastern  states  this 
frequently  takes  place  whenever  the  native  honeysuckle 
starts  in  a  grass  field.  Even  more  common  perhaps  is  the 
introduction  of  some  new  plant,  frequently  with  the  seed 
of  the  desired  species.  A  very  large  part  of  the  weeds 
in  our  country  have  been  introduced  from  Europe. 
Chickweed,  dandelion,  plantain,  Canada  thistle  and  bur- 
dock are  a  few  which  every  farmer  knows.  Gray's 
Botany  of  1887  listed  2,893  species  of  native  plants  and 
405  introduced  —  a  goodly  percentage  of  the  latter  must 
be  classed  as  weeds.  Weeds,  incidentally,  are  plants  for 
which  we  have  no  use,  or  are  useful  plants  growing  where 
they  are  not  wanted.  In  the  South,  Johnson  grass,  a 
species  of  sorghum,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  fodder 
plants.  In  a  cultivated  field  it  is  however  the  despair  of 
the  planter. 

Man  engages  therefore  in  a  ceaseless  warfare  to  protect 
his  plants  and  insure  crops.  He  must  move  his  straw- 
berry bed  every  year  or  two,  not  alone  because  of  the  rapid 
increase  of  the  plants,  but  because  of  the  growth  of  grass ; 
he  must  change  his  hayfields,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of 
rotating  crops,  but  chiefly  to  get  rid  of  the  weeds.  The 
expert  tells  from  the  weeds  on  a  farm  the  grade  of  the 
farmer.  To  keep  undesired  species  from  growing  is  thus 
a  very  important  part  of  agriculture. 

Animals  have  food  preferences,  but  what  they  actually 


,       MUTUAL  AID  77 

eat  is  often  more  or  less  a  matter  of  chance  or  necessity. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  alimentary  canal  in 
carnivora  is  from  three  to  five  times  as  long  as  the  body, 
while  in  herbivora  it  is  from  eleven  to  twenty-six  times  as 
long  as  the  body.  The  fact  that  in  man  it  is  but  seven 
times  the  body  length  may  indicate  that  he  is  likely  to 
cling  to  a  meat  diet. 

Fortunately  for  man  seeds  and  insects  are  the  chief  food 
supply  of  many  animals,  especially  the  birds.  Some  one- 
seventh  of  our  birds  are  primarily  seed  eaters.  The  great 
family  of  finches  and  sparrows  find  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  their  food  in  seeds  of  weeds.  The  proven  record  of 
the  bob-white  is  amazing. 

Number  of  Seeds  Eaten  ~by  a  Bob-white  in  One  Day 

Barnyard  grass     2,500      rose   10,000  Plantain 12,500 

Beggar  ticks. .  1,400  Lamb's      quar-  Round-headed 

Black  mustard    2,500      ters    15,000       bush   clover.     1,800 

Burdock    600  Milkweed    770  Smartweed  . . .     2,250 

Crab  grass  . . .  2,000  Peppergrass  . .  2,400  Water     smart- 
Curled  dock  . .     4,175  Pigweed    12,000       weed    2,000 

Dodder    1,560  Rabbit-foot  White   vervain  18,750 

Evening    prim-                   clover    30,000 

One  hundred  and  twenty-nine  different  weeds  are 
known  to  furnish  food  to  the  bob-white.  "  In  Bulletin 
No.  21,  Biological  Survey,  it  is  calculated  that  if  in 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  there  are  four  bob-whites  to 
every  square  mile,  and  if  each  bird  consumes  one  ounce 
of  seed  per  day,  the  total  destruction  to  weed  seeds  from 
September  1st  to  April  30th  in  those  states  alone  will 
be  1,341  tons."  21 

Bob-white  is  partial  to  insects  also.  It  is  known  to 
eat  145  species  including  such  harmful  varieties  as  the 
Colorado  potato  beetle,  chinch-bug,  wireworm,  May  beetle, 

21  HOBNADAY,  W.  T.     Our  Vanishing  Wild  Life,  p.  220. 


78  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

squash  beetle,  cotton  boll  weevil,  cutworm,  codling  moth 
and  Hessian  fly. 

Taking  the  year  as  a  whole,  73  per  cent  of  the  meadow 
lark's  food  is  insects,  12  per  cent  weed  seeds,  5  per  cent 
grain.  The  crow  blackbird  eats  insects  26.9  per  cent; 
other  animal  food,  3.4  per  cent;  corn,  37.2  per  cent; 
oats,  2.9  per  cent;  wheat,  4.8  per  cent;  other  grain,  1.6 
per  cent ;  fruit,  5  per  cent  and  weed  seeds  and  mast,  18.2 
per  cent.  The  robin's  diet  consists  of  insects,  40  per 
cent;  wild  fruits,  43  per  cent;  cultivated  fruit,  8  per 
cent ;  vegetables,  5  per  cent.  The  fly-catchers  feed  almost 
wholly  upon  insects,  while  the  great  army  of  warblers  are 
not  far  behind  —  95  per  cent.  Over  65  per  cent  of  the 
food  of  woodpeckers  is  insects.  A  fair  breakfast  for  a 
mourning  dove  is  put  at  three  thousand  grass  seeds.  The 
song  sparrow  will  eat  some  1,500  larvae  a  day,  while  the 
yellow-throated  warbler  will  consume  10,000  tree  lice  in 
the  same  time.  A  scarlet  tanager  has  been  known  to 
devour  35  gypsy  moths  a  minute  for  18  minutes.  More 
than  50  different  species  feed  upon  caterpillars,  while  38 
species  live  largely  on  plant  lice.  Five  hundred  mos- 
quitoes have  been  found  in  the  crop  of  one  night  hawk. 
Thirty-six  species  of  birds  feed  on  the  codling  moth,  chief 
of  which  are  woodpeckers,  titmice  and  sparrows,  in  some 
places  destroying  from  66  to  85  per  cent  of  the  larvae. 
The  great  group  of  snipe,  sandpipers  and  plover  eat  beetles, 
weevils,  worms,  mosquitoes  and  grasshoppers.  The  swal- 
lows are  the  greatest  enemies  in  this  country  of  the  cotton 
boll  weevil.  It  is  claimed  that  in  the  state  of  Iowa  there 
are  about  89,000,000  birds,  each  of  which  eats  not  less 
than  25  insects  per  day,  or  a  daily  total  of  2,240,000,000 
or  about  18,666  bushels  of  insects  each  day  for  the  150 
davs  of  the  warmer  months. 


MUTUAL  AID  79 

The  relation  of  other  animals  to  man  must  be  con- 
sidered. In  the  United  States  the  most  harmful  animals 
are  rabbits,  rats  and  mice.  In  an  Iowa  nursery,  over 
3,000  trees  were  girdled  in  one  season  by  rabbits;  in  a 
Maryland  nursery,  2,000  out  of  4,000  apple  trees  were 
ruined.  It  has  been  estimated  that  there  are  at  least 
300,000,000  rats  in  the  country  and  that  the  damage  done 
by  them  can  not  be  less  than  $360,000,000  yearly,  of 
which  $100,000,000  is  for  grain  consumed.  In  addition, 
we  must  consider  the  harm  they  do  as  disease  carriers. 
Save  as  scavengers  in  the  city,  rats  and  mice  are  of  no 
value. 

Mice  alone  are  responsible  for  a  loss  of  $3,000,000  yearly 
in  the  United  States.  Short-tailed  field-mice  appeared 
in  great  numbers  on  the  Humboldt  River  in  Nevada  in 
1907  and  by  November  there  were  from  8,000  to  12,000 
per  acre,  their  holes  numbering  about  24,000  per  acre. 
During  the  summer  they  ruined  one-third  of  the  alfalfa, 
totally  destroying  many  fields,  15,000  out  of  20,000  acres 
having  to  be  replanted.  They  destroyed  three-fourths  of 
the  potatoes,  badly  damaged  the  remainder  and  severely 
injured  beets  and  carrots.  They  girdled  and  killed  most 
of  the  young  shade  trees  planted  along  the  irrigating 
ditches  and  about  the  fields.  A  conservative  estimate  of 
the  losses  in  this  district  was  $250,000.  There  were  at- 
tracted to  these  fields  probably  2,000  predaceous  birds 
(hawks,  owls,  gulls,  crows,  ravens  and  herons)  and  1,000 
carnivorous  mammals  (skunks,  weasels  and  badgers), 
which  ate  perhaps  45,000  mice  a  day  or  1,350,000  a  month. 
It  seems  that  the  mice  had  greatly  increased  for  a  couple 
of  years,  then  came  the  year  of  greatest  abundance 
and  thereafter  the  numbers  rapidly  decreased.  It  is  sus- 
pected that  some  disease  was  responsible  to  a  large  ex- 


80  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tent  for  the  sudden  decrease,  but  this  is  not  definitely 
known.22 

The  mention  of  the  predaceous  birds  indicates  that  they 
too  may  help  man  in  the  conflict  with  his  foes.  What 
can  be  said  for  hawks  and  owls  ?  Professor  Surface  tells 
of  a  Pennsylvania  experiment.  The  State  put  a  bounty 
of  fifty  cents  on  every  hawk  or  owl  killed,  and  allowed 
twenty-five  cents  additional  to  the  official  making  the 
affidavit,  on  the  theory  that  chickens  needed  protection. 
In  eighteen  months  the  State  paid  out  some  $90,000.  As- 
suming that  5,000  chickens  were  killed  annually  by  these 
birds  (though  the  truth  is  that  they  destroyed  very  few) 
and  valuing  those  killed  at  twenty-five  cents  each,  for  many 
were  very  young,  the  total  loss  was  $1,875.  Most  of  this 
loss  would  have  been  prevented  had  the  chickens  been 
properly  protected.  Estimating  the  harm  done  by  the 
mice,  etc.,  that  would  have  been  killed  by  these  birds  at  two 
cents  apiece,  these  birds  were  worth  $30  apiece  to  the 
State  for  eighteen  months.  128,571  birds  were  killed, 
so  that  the  State  taxed  itself  some  $3,857,130  plus  the 
bounty  paid,  $90,000,  a  total  of  $3,947,130  to  offset  an 
estimated  damage  of  $1,875.  The  mice  increased  so  fast 
that  the  law  was  soon  repealed.23 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  places  the  owl  among 
the  most  beneficial  of  all  birds ;  rats,  mice  and  rabbits  be- 
ing among  their  staple  foods.  At  least  65  per  cent  of  the 
foods  of  the  red  shouldered  hawk  consists  of  injurious 
mammals,  and  yet  this  is  one  of  the  hawks  commonly 
called  "  hen-hawks."  All  hawks  with  one  or  two  possible 
exceptions  do  some  good  —  only  six  out  of  seventy-three 
species  are  listed  as  on  the  whole  harmful  —  most  of  them 

22  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1908,  p.  301. 

23  Bulletin,  Pennsylvania  Division  of  Zoology,  Vol.  I,  No.  6. 


MUTUAL  AID  81 

doing  vastly  more  good  than  harm.  Even  the  crow,  aside 
from  some  damage  at  corn-planting  time  and  some  destruc- 
tion of  nests  of  other  birds,  is  the  farmer's  friend,  eating 
great  quantities  of  cutworms.  On  the  whole  the  case  for 
the  birds  is  clear.24  Once  in  a  while  a  given  bird  or 
animal  of  a  species,  usually  harmless,  develops  bad  habits 
and  must  be  killed. 

Many  other  animals  render  assistance  by  no  means  in- 
considerable. The  despised  skunk  is  one  of  the  farmer's 
best  friends.  Foxes  feed  largely  on  mice  as  do  weasels, 
though  when  the  latter  reach  the  chicken  coop  there  is 
trouble.  Coons  eat  insects  as  well  as  corn,  and  are  rarely 
numerous  enough  to  be  important.  The  bats  are  entirely 
insectivorous  and  are  of  great  value.  Moles  feed  entirely 
upon  insects  and  worms,  the  damage  attributed  to  them 
by  the  gardeners  being  really  done  by  mice  which  use  their 
runs,  though  moles  sometimes  work  havoc  in  a  lawn.  Por- 
cupines live  on  the  bark  of  trees  and  do  some  harm  thereby. 
The  woodchucks  do  considerable  damage  to  crops,  but  are 
not  abundant.  Squirrels  feed  on  insects  as  well  as  nuts. 
Practically  speaking  little  damage  is  done  then  save  by 
rats  and  mice,  though  in  the  districts  where  prairie  dogs  or 
gophers  abound  much  injury  is  suffered  by  the  grain  crops. 
Most  of  the  depredations  of  other  animals  could  be  pre- 
vented by  better  care  of  stock. 

There  is  no  better  illustration  of  the  way  man's  reason 
is  upset  by  his  prejudice  than  his  attitude  towards  reptiles, 
particularly  snakes.  In  the  United  States,  outside  of  a 
few  restricted  localities  inhabited  by  crocodiles,  or  parts 
of  the  desert  southwest  where  lives  the  largest  lizard  we 
have,  the  Gila  monster,  whose  bite  is  reputed  to  be  poison- 
ous, there  are  no  legged  reptiles  which  do  man  any  harm. 

24  FISHEB,  A.  K.    Hawks  and  Owls  of  the  United  States. 


82  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

The  poor  serpent  continues  to  pay  the  penalty  for  Eve's 
temptation,  while  tradition  combined  with  popular  educa- 
tion inculcates  a  fear  which  is  rarely  deserved.  Barring 
the  moccasin,  copperhead  and  rattlesnake,  whose  bites  are 
very  poisonous,  there  need  be  no  fear.  Moreover  even 
where  these  snakes  exist  the  actual  danger  is  small,  as  they 
seldom  voluntarily  attack  man.  Incessant  warfare  has 
gradually  exterminated  them  till  now  in  the  East  and 
Middle  West  where  rattlers  once  were  very  common,  they 
are  seldom  found.  There  are  still  copperheads  and  moc- 
casins in  the  East  and  South  where  hills,  forests  or  swamps 
abound,  and  they  should  be  killed  whenever  found.  Else- 
where on  earth  other  conditions  sometimes  prevail  as  in 
India  where  the  foolish  taboo  on  killing  snakes  causes  the 
loss  of  some  50,000  lives  a  year.  The  smaller  snakes  feed 
largely  on  insects,  larvae  and  slugs,  while  the  larger  such 
as  black  or  king  snakes  add  to  the  list  toads,  frogs,  mice 
and  birds.  Though  a  final  estimate  cannot  now  be  put  on 
the  value  of  all  these  snakes,  it  is  clear  that  most  of  them 
do  as  much  good  as  harm,  to  say  the  least,  and  many  are 
extremely  valuable  friends  of  man.  Lizards  feed  almost 
wholly  upon  insects,  slugs,  etc.,  and  are  decidedly  helpful 
to  man.  Turtles,  on  the  whole,  probably  do  much  more 
good  than  harm  to  man  and  deserve  his  protection. 

The  humble  toad  also  renders  considerable  service  to 
man.  Kirkland  summarizes  his  findings  thus :  "Against 
the  toad  must  be  reckoned  the  destruction  of  many  bene- 
ficial ground  beetles,  a  few  spiders,  an  occasional  carrion 
beetle,  ladybird,  ichneumon  fly,  forming  as  a  whole  11  per 
cent  of  its  food.  To  the  credit  of  the  toad  we  must 
place  the  destruction  of  a  remarkably  large  number  of 
particularly  injurious  insects.  .  .  .  The  quantity  of  in- 


MUTUAL  AID  83 

jurious  species  destroyed  forms  62  per  cent  of  its  total 
food."  25 

This  great  field  of  interrelations  may  be  viewed  from 
two  standpoints:  (1)  that  of  the  student  who  seeks  to  see 
and  understand  the  series  in  a  disinterested  fashion;  (2) 
that  of  the  man  seeking  his  own  welfare  indifferent  to  any 
scheme  of  nature  save  as  it  affects  him.  The  student  must 
not  forget  that  his  duty  does  not  end  with  the  accumula- 
tion of  knowledge.  The  practical  man  must  be  willing 
to  heed  the  advice  of  the  student. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  practical  man  it  is  not  al- 
ways easy  to  determine  whether  a  given  plant  or  animal 
is  useful,  neutral  or  injurious.  Several  facts  must  be 
kept  in  mind.  A  plant  that  hinders  agriculture  must  be 
driven  from  that  field  at  least.  The  animal  that  at  times 
eats  man's  food  supply  may  for  the  most  part  feed  upon 
weeds  or  insects  and  thus  save  the  farmer  a  far  greater 
loss  than  it  inflicts.  The  mere  fact  that  it  does  damage 
is  not  sufficient  to  condemn  it.  Nor  is  the  reverse  true. 
An  animal-  may  do  good  and  yet  more  than  overbalance 
this  by  the  damage  it  causes.  In  such  cases  the  student 
must  make  the  decision  ultimately.  The  practical  man 
must  recognize  that  better  care  of  his  plants  or  animals 
may  be  by  far  a  cheaper  method  of  preventing  loss  than 
the  destruction  of  the  types  doing  some  harm  to  his  crops. 

In  these  matters  the  average  man  is  ignorant  or  indif- 
ferent, and  this  attitude  is  to  be  deplored.  Other  animals 
than  man  rarely  kill  except  to  get  food  for  real  necessi- 
ties. The  dog  that  gets  the  sheep-killing  habit  apparently 
shows  the  effect  of  his  association  with  man.  Here  lies 
the  great  danger.  The  city-dwellers  who  seek  the  country 

25  KIKKLAND,  A.  H.     Usefulness  of  the  American  Toad,  p.  13. 


84:  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

and  pick  every  flower  in  sight,  frequently  pulling  up 
roots  and  all,  are  destroying  some  of  our  finest  flowers. 
The  pot  hunter,  the  farmer  who  kills  every  time  a  cherry 
is  taken,  the  woman  who  wears  birds  on  her  hats  are  not 
merely  destroying  the  lower  forms  of  life  but  are  inflicting 
a  terrific  burden  on  the  human  race.  The  man  who  need- 
lessly cripples  the  life  of  his  descendants  is  as  blame- 
worthy as  the  one  who  wastes  his  own  or  commits  suicide. 
In  this  same  category  comes  the  killing  for  food  of  varie- 
ties of  infinitesimal  value  for  that  purpose. 

The  dangerous  types  of  life  today  are  not  the  biggest 
but  the  smallest.  To  fight  these  man  needs  the  help  of 
those  for  whom  the  dangerous  types  are  the  common 
supply  of  food.  Big  game  is  today  making  its  last  stand 
in  the  wilds  of  Asia,  Africa  and  South  America.  Un- 
less man  stays  his  murderous  hand,  in  a  few  years  many 
forms  of  life  which  in  ages  to  come  may  have  the  highest 
value  will  be  gone  forever. 

It  must  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  settlement  of  any 
country  like  America  will  involve  the  disappearance  of 
the  big  animals  from  the  agricultural  districts  at  least. 
When  we  read,  however,  that  thousands  of  the  bison  were 
killed  for  hides  or  tongues  alone,  the  carcasses  being  al- 
lowed to  rot,  we  must  ask  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  slaughter. 
Whether  their  disappearance  from  cultivated  fields  also 
justifies  the  extermination  of  large  animals  in  the  millions 
of  acres  of  wild  land  is  also  open  to  question. 

The  influence  of  the  incoming  white  man  upon  birds 
deserves  attention.  Until  the  nineteenth  century  man  did 
not  make  any  serious  inroads,  directly  at  least,  on  the 
number  of  birds.  The  bow  and  arrow,  traps  or  birdlime 
were  after  all  ineffective.  Man  had  no  motive  for  killing, 
nor  could  he  afford  the  cost.  Since  that  time,  however, 


MUTUAL  AID  85 

by  the  development  of  the  shotgun,  the  increasing  destruc- 
tion in 'the  woods  and  copses,  the  cultivation  of  the  fields 
and  the  development  of  the  fashion  of  wearing  birds  on 
hats,  immense  havoc  has  been  wrought. 

There  are  about  1,100  species  of  birds  in  the  United 
States.  Of  these  some  900  are  of  little  or  no  value  as 
food,  while  about  200  may  be  considered  as  game  birds. 
As  a  whole  birds  are  much  less  common  today  than 
formerly  and  this  is  particularly  true  of  the  game  birds 
and  of  those  species  of  the  first  group  which  have  been 
used  in  millinery  or  whose  eggs  have  been  made  articles 
of  commerce.  Some  common  and  valuable  sorts  have 
probably  increased  and  these  include  robins,  meadowlarks, 
kingbirds,  sparrows,  pewees  and  swallows. 

In  comparison  with  the  other  continents  America  was 
poorly  stocked  with  the  larger  mammals,  but  it  was  very 
rich  in  bird  life.  Today  in  most  of  the  land  but  a  small 
fraction  of  that  bird  life  survives.  When  we  learn  that  in 
twelve  months  in  1909  and  1910,  the  official  records  show 
the  killing  of  nearly  6,000,000  birds  in  Louisiana,  the 
decrease  is  not  hard  to  understand.  How  many  others 
were  actually  killed  no  one  knows.  These  birds  were  as 
follows : 

Wild  ducks 3,176,000 

Coots    280,740 

Geese  and  brant   202,210 

Snipe,  sandpiper,  plover   606,635 

Bob-white    1,140,750 

Mourning  doves 310,660 

Wild  turkeys  2,219 

5,719,214  26 

As  a  result  of  less  than  a  century  of  carnage  some 
species  are  entirely  extinct.  The  passenger  pigeon,  once 

26  HOBNADAT,  W.  T.      O.  C.,  p.  5. 


86  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

present  in  such  numbers  that  a  single  flight  was  estimated 
at  2,230,272,000  individuals,  is  extinct;  the  last  known 
wild  bird  having  been  killed  in  Michigan  in  1908.  The 
last  one  in  captivity  died  in  the  Cincinnati  Zoological 
Garden,  September  1,  1914.  Yet  this  bird  was  shipped  in 
1869  from  Hartford,  Michigan,  to  the  extent  of  three 
carloads  a  day  for  forty  days,  a  total  of  11,880,000  birds. 
The  last  living  specimen  of  the  great  auk  of  the  North  At- 
lantic coast  was  seen  in  1852.  The  Labrador  duck  was 
extinct  by  1875,  the  Pallas  cormorant  about  1852.  The 
Eskimo  curlew  has  rarely  been  seen  since  1900,  the  last 
specimens  being  taken  in  Nebraska  in  1911.  The  Caro- 
lina parrakeet,  formerly  ranging  over  the  entire  central 
and  southeastern  states,  now  survives  in  captivity  only. 

At  the  very  door  of  extinction,  according  to  Hornaday, 
are  the  whooping  crane,  trumpeter  swan,  flamingo,  spoon- 
bill, scarlet  ibis,  American  egret,  snowy  egret,  wood  duck, 
heath  hen,  pinnated  grouse,  prairie  sharp-tailed  grouse, 
sage  grouse,  golden  plover,  upland  plover  and  a  number  of 
others.  Some  of  these  may  be  saved  by  prompt  action 
—  others  are  apparently  doomed.  Yet  the  wood  duck  is 
one  of  our  most  beautiful  birds. 

Probably  the  brutal  side  of  man  and  woman  has  never 
been  more  clearly  shown  than  in  the  killing  of  the  egrets 
for  the  "  aigrettes."  This  involves  the  killing  in  the 
breeding  season  of  the  adults,  the  young  perishing  in  the 
nests.  Millions  of  adult  birds  were  killed,  entire  colonies 
being  wiped  out  in  a  few  days. 

Now  the  larger  game  birds  are  gone,  the  hunter  is  turn- 
ing his  attention  to  those  that  remain.  Ducks  and  geese 
exist  in  greatly  diminished  numbers.  Quail  are  scarce. 
The  prairie  chicken  is  seldom  seen  east  of  the  Mississippi 
and  is  far  from  common  west  of  it.  Robins,  blackbirds, 


MUTUAL  AID  87 

meadow  larks,  bobolinks  and  doves  are  being  shot  as 
"  game."  Robins  are  "  hunted  "  at  their  roosting  places, 
and  reports  tell  of  the  killing  of  10,157  in  two  hours  and 
ten  minutes  by  seven  men  in  Texas.  A  quarter  of  a 
million  are  killed  in  Louisiana  for  food  yearly. 

Sentimentalism  aside,  must  we  not  ask  ourselves  what 
the  results  of  this  program  will  be?  The  answer  is  at 
hand.  In  1913  the  State  Ornithologist  of  Massachusetts 
estimated  the  damage  done  to  crops  in  the  United  States 
by  the  destruction  of  birds  at  $800,000,000  annually, 
which  is  equal  to  a  tax  of  $1.67  per  acre  of  improved  land, 
a  sum  larger  than  the  total  tax  collected  on  the  same  land 
for  local  or  state  purposes.  Yet  birds  are  an  important 
factor  in  reducing  insect  pests,  for,  as  some  one  has  said, 
they  "  reduce  to  a  lower  level  the  great  flood  tide  of  in- 
sect life."  The  destruction  of  the  insect-eating  birds  is, 
however,  just  beginning  in  the  country  at  large.  How 
large  a  bill  will  the  American  be  willing  to  pay  for  the 
privilege  of  having  other  Americans  —  or  immigrants  — 
go  a-hunting? 

The  bird  lover  may  perhaps  exaggerate  the  help  given 
by  birds  in  controlling  insects.  The  entomologist  is  in- 
clined to  emphasize  other  factors.  "  It  must  be  again 
emphasized  that  birds  and  other  animals  constitute  only 
one  of  the  checks  to  insect  increase  and,  as  against  climate, 
disease,  parasitic  and  predatory  insects,  a  very  minor  and 
insignificant  one.  We  must  also  remember  again  that 
for  a  naturally  abundant  species  the  abundance  was  fixed 
in  spite  of  all  the  natural  checks,  including  birds  and  ani- 
mals. Now  when  such  an  abundant  insect  becomes  de- 
structive by  reason  of  undue  increase  from  any  cause,  the 
very  last  factor  to  become  important  in  bringing  it  back 
to  normal  conditions  is  the  vertebrate  enemy  list,  in- 


88  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

eluding  birds,  because  their  number  and  ability  to  con- 
sume remains  practically  a  fixed  quantity  due  to  their 
slow  rate  of  multiplication.  It  sounds  large  when  we 
find  100  larvae  of  an  elm-leaf  beetle  in  a  bird  stomach  and 
find  100  birds  to  an  acre ;  but  when  we  find  100  larvae  on 
a  dozen  leaves  and  many  thousands  of  leaves  on  a  tree, 
the  figures  lose  in  impressiveness."  Birds  eat  parasitized 
forms  as  well  as  healthy.  The  wood-leopard  moth  is  in- 
jurious only  in  cities  where  the  English  sparrow  keeps 
out  other  birds,  though  the  writer  thinks  the  sparrow  did 
destroy  the  span-worm.27 

No  further  argument  would  seem  to  be  necessary  to 
show  that  man  must  not  carelessly  upset  this  delicate  bal- 
ance of  nature.  This  is  not  to  be  taken  as  an  argument 
against  such  an  upset  for  there  can  be  no  development 
without  it.  It  merely  means  that  man  must  count  the 
cost. 

Even  where  the  change  made  is  clearly  for  man's  bene- 
fit, the  results  have  always  been  uniformly  satisfactory. 
In  Montana  I  have  seen  acres  of  grain  cut  close  to  the 
ground  by  the  prairie  dogs,  which  were  as  fat  as  the 
ordinary  pug  dog.  The  new  food  supply  had  just  met 
their  taste  and  they  reaped  in  advance  of  the  farmer. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  stated  some  years  ago  that 
the  increase  of  these  animals  in  parts  of  Kansas  was  an 
actual  threat  to  the  human  population.  In  parts  of  Cali- 
fornia rabbits  commit  similar  depredations,  and  great 
hunts  are  often  organized  to  reduce  their  numbers. 

Whenever  man  interferes  in  this  great  chain  of  inter- 
related forms  of  life,  he  runs  great  risk  of  producing  the 
most  unexpected  results.  Today  in  civilized  lands  few 
matters  are  more  closely  regulated  than  the  importation 

27  SMITH,  J.  B.    o.  c.,  p.  136  ff. 


MUTUAL  AID  89 

of  strange  forms  of  life,  and  the  bringing  in  of  those 
likely  in  any  way  to  cause  trouble  is  strictly  prohibited. 
This  is  the  result  of  experience.  To  be  sure  all  our  domes- 
tic animals  have  been  brought  here.  Unfortunately  all 
our  importations  have  not  been  so  happy. 

Go  where  you  will  in  the  East  today  and  the  old,  neg- 
lected apple  orchards  are  full  of  dead  limbs.  Examine 
the  twigs  and  if  not  too  long  dead  they  will  look  as  if 
there  had  been  some  eruption  on  the  bark.  In  orchards 
properly  cared  for  once  or  twice  a  year  the  trees  are  all 
sprayed  with  some  oil  or  salt  and  sulphur  solution.  Years 
ago  there  came  in  on  fruit  stock  from  Asia  what  we  now 
call  the  San  Jose  scale.  It  is  a  minute  shield  protecting  a 
tiny  body  fastened  to  the  bark  as  by  a  pin.  Yet  this 
insignificant  scale  increases  so  rapidly  and  is  spread  so 
fast  by  birds  that  in  a  generation  the  country  is  prac- 
tically covered.  It  was  spread  in  a  measure  also  by  the 
nurseries  which  scattered  infected  stock  ere  its  significance 
was  known.  Attacking  a  large  share  of  our  prized  fruit 
trees  it  imposes  a  burden  of  care  and  expense  that  is 
enormous,  or  else  destroys  our  fruit.  We  are  encouraged 
by  the  fact  that  the  scale  has  been  attacked  by  a  parasite 
which  has  destroyed  it  in  some  districts. 

Inl868orl869a  French  entomologist  near  Boston  was 
experimenting  with  gypsy  moths  hoping  to  find  a  cocoon 
of  commercial  value.  A  storm  set  some  of  the  moths 
free.  The  anxiety  of  the  student  to  recover  the  speci- 
mens was  ridiculed.  Down  to  1912  the  government  and 
the  New  England  States  had  spent  some  $7,680,000  in 
the  effort  to  get  rid  of  them  and  no  New  Englander  treats 
the  subject  as  a  joke,  though  I  am  told  that  the  canny 
inspectors  are  careful  to  miss  enough  nests  to  make  sure  of 
their  jobs  the  next  season.  About  the  first  of  August  the 


90  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

wingless  female  gypsy  moth  crawls  to  some  sheltered  spot 
on  a  tree  and  lays  masses  of  perhaps  250  eggs  each.  These 
hatch  out  the  next  May  and  the  young  begin  to  eat  the 
leaves.  As  if  this  were  not  enough  the  brown-tailed  moth 
has  appeared.  These  may  often  be  seen  in  great  pasty 
white  masses  covering  electric  poles,  wires  and  globes  in  the 
evenings.  In  July  the  female  lays  her  eggs  on  some  leaf. 
These  hatch  in  a  few  days  and  feeding  begins.  Then 
a  winter  nest  is  made  of  leaves  which  remain  decorating 
the  tips  of  the  branches  till  spring.  From  scattered  spots 
on  the  Maine  coast  down  to  Fall  Eiver  and  west  to  the 
Berkshires  these  enemies  of  foliage  have  spread.  If  the 
shade  trees  are  to  be  saved  a  constant  warfare  must  be 
waged. 

The  European  house  sparrow  known  to  us  as  the  Eng- 
lish sparrow  was  introduced  by  would-be  public  bene- 
factors. As  Hornaday  says,  "  It  is  a  national  sorrow  al- 
most too  great  to  be  endured."  28  So  far  as  we  can  see 
it  is  a  quarrelsome,  noisy,  dirty  bird  which  has  driven  out 
of  the  towns  many  desirable  native  species.  It  prefers 
grain  to  weeds  and  its  board  bill  is  large.  On  one  occa- 
sion I  saw  it  eating  brown-tailed  moths  and  I  hope  against 
hope  that  this  may  become  a  habit.  The  bird  was  intro- 
duced into  America  in  1850  by  the  directors  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Institute.  In  the  next  decade  it  appeared  in  a  num- 
ber of  places  in  the  country,  having  been  brought  over  ap- 
parently by  Europeans  who  missed  it.  It  was  likewise 
taken  to  Australia  and  has  given  the  same  trouble  there. 
The  European  starling,  another  bird  of  doubtful  virtue 
first  liberated  in  Central  Park,  New  York  City,  in  1890, 
has  now  spread  from  Massachusetts  to  Virginia  and  may 

28  HOBNADAY,  W.  T.      O.  C.,  p.  334. 


MUTUAL  AID  91 

become  a  serious  menace  to  the  fruit  industry  as  it  has  in 
Australia. 

The  English  introduced  the  rabbit  into  Australia  about 
1860.  The  results  were  astounding;  grass,  bark  of  trees, 
fruit  and  vegetables  were  consumed.  "  In  order  to  pro- 
tect such  portions  of  the  country  as  are  still  free  from 
rabbits,  fences  of  wire  netting  have  been  erected ;  one  of 
these  fences  erected  by  the  government  of  Victoria  extend- 
ing for  a  distance  of  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
geographical  miles.  In  New  Zealand,  where  the  rabbit 
has  been  introduced  little  more  than  twenty  years,  its  in- 
crease has  been  so  enormous,  and  the  destruction  it  inflicts 
so  great,  that  in  some  districts  it  has  actually  been  a  ques- 
tion whether  colonists  should  not  vacate  the  country  rather 
than  attempt  to  fight  against  the  plague.  The  average 
number  of  rabbit  skins  exported  annually  from  New  Zea- 
land is  now  twelve  millions."  29 

In  1872  the  mongoose,  which  in  its  Indian  home  feeds 
on  rats  and  snakes,  was  introduced  into  Barbados  and 
Jamaica  to  get  rid  of  the  rats  which  were  injuring  the 
cane  fields.  The  attempt  was  only  too  successful.  The 
rats  gone,  birds  and  chickens  were  attacked ;  even  the  cane 
has  been  attacked,  and  everywhere  the  mongoose  is  a 
scourge.  Now  we  are  told  that  owing  to  the  absence  of 
the  birds  Jamaica  is  having  trouble  with  ticks  introduced 
from  Mexico.  The  mongoose  has  reached  many  other 
islands  of  the  Caribbean  and  Hawaii.  "  The  progress  of 
the  pest  is  everywhere  the  same, —  sweeping  destruction 
of  rats,  snakes,  wild  birds,  small  mammals  and  finally 
poultry  and  vegetables."  30  If  it  ever  gets  loose  in  this 

29  HORN ADAY,  W.  T.    o.  c.,  p.  331. 

30  Ibid.,  p.  333, 


92          THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

country  it  will  be  a  serious  matter.  It  is  claimed  that 
Florida  is  having  increased  difficulty  from  moccasins  and 
muskrats  because  of  the  killing  of  the  alligators.  In  like 
unconscious  fashion  the  insect  phylloxera,  was  introduced 
from  America  into  France  and  nearly  destroyed  the  vine 
culture.  The  American  grape  vines  when  attacked  threw 
out  new  root  shoots  but  the  European  vines  did  not,  hence 
were  killed.  The  Colorado  beetle  has  made  its  way  across 
the  continent  in  three  years,  and  even  to  Ireland.  The 
Hessian  fly,  the  Argentine  ant,  the  horn  fly,  the  wood 
leopard  moth  and  the  elm-leaf  beetle  are  other  undesirable 
immigrants.  In  a  word,  some  of  our  greatest  burdens 
have  been  brought  upon  us  by  our  ignorant  or  careless 
upset  of  nature's  balance. 

In  earlier  times  man  did  relatively  little  harm  to  those 
forms  of  life  on  which  he  most  directly  depended.  This 
was  due  in  part  to  a  lack  of  death-dealing  weapons;  in 
part  to  the  absence  of  the  philosophy  expressed  in  what 
has  been  considered  a  characteristic  English  fashion: 
"  It's  a  fine  day  —  let's  go  and  kill  something."  The 
ruthless  slaughter  of  the  last  three  centuries  has  worked 
irreparable  damage  in  many  ways.  There  are  many  signs 
that  man  is  coming  to  realize  that  he  is  not  free  to  lord  it 
over  nature  and  wantonly  destroy  her  lowlier  forms  un- 
less he  wishes  at  the  same  time  to  make  his  own  life  more 
difficult,  perhaps  impossible.  The  recognition  that  he  is 
a  part  of  nature  is  bound  to  change  his  attitude.  Instead 
of  trying  to  catalogue  plants  and  animals  either  as  friends 
or  enemies  he  begins  to  see  that  each  plays  some  part  in 
the  whole  cycle.  Some  he  must  destroy  lest  they  destroy 
him.  Many  more  he  must  protect  even  though  they  do 
him  some  small  harm  because  of  the  infinite  services  they 


MUTUAL  AID  93 

render.  Many  he  must  leave  where  they  are  lest  under 
new  surroundings  they  change  their  habits. 

The  stronger  winged  grasshoppers  were  able  to  fly  "  hun- 
dreds of  miles  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  alighting  first  where  cultivated  lands  begin.  Thus 
Kansas,  Nebraska  and  the  Dakotas  were  preeminently 
sufferers  from  grasshopper  invasions,  and  not  infrequently 
conditions  were  sufficiently  good  there  to  permit  the  in- 
sects to  lay  their  eggs,  providing  for  a  brood  which  the 
year  following  destroyed  the  vegetation  while  still  un- 
fledged, and  then  migrated  yet  further  east  to  do  destruc- 
tive work  as  adults  and  to  perish  gradually,  in  the  egg 
stage,  in  the  moist  unsuitable  soil.  .  .  .  No  one  who  has 
not  seen  grasshoppers  in  this  Western  country  can  form 
any  real  idea  of  their  actual  abundance,  and  their  de- 
structiveness  has  been  the  theme  of  many  a  writer.  .  .  . 
Conditions  now  are  much  better  than  they  were  and  can 
never  again  be  quite  as  bad.  A  large  area  of  what  was 
at  one  time  ideal  breeding  ground,  is  now  irrigated  and 
under  cultivation,  and  the  enormous  belt  of  alfalfa  and 
other  crops  now  basing  the  foothills,  checks  and  takes  up 
the  migrating  hordes  that  occasionally  start  from  the  un- 
cultivated areas.  The  march  of  advancing  civilization 
spells  the  doom  of  some  of  these  grasshopper  species,  as  it 
has  that  of  many  another  animal."  81 

The  Department  of  Agriculture  has  recently  published 
a  bulletin  based  on  the  reports  of  some  two  hundred  ob- 
servers in  the  district  east  of  Kansas  and  north  of  North 
Carolina.  There  were  found  for  each  100  robins  about  83 
English  sparrows,  49  catbirds,  37  brown-thrashers,  28 
house-wrens,  27  kingbirds,  and  26  bluebirds. 

si  SMITH,  J.  B.    o.  c.,  p.  56. 


94  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"  The  census  covered  58  of  the  108  acres  of  the  average 
farm  of  the  Northeastern  States  and  revealed  on  this  area 
a  bird  population  of  69  nesting  pairs,  and  on  the  remaining 
50  acres  it  is  estimated  that  there  would  be  about  one  pair 
to  the  acre;  in  all,  114  nesting  pairs  to  the  108  acres  of 
farmed  land.  On  the  46  acres  of  wild  land  existing  for 
each  108  acres  of  farmed  land  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
there  would  be  fewer  birds  than  on  the  census  covered 
area."  Heavy  forests  contain  relatively  few  birds.  The 
only  large  census  returned  showed  in  an  Idaho  forest  254 
pairs  of  breeding  birds  on  768  acres. 

The  densest  bird  population  was  in  the  town  of  Chevy 
Chase,  Maryland,  in  which  the  houses  are  surrounded  by 
large  yards  containing  many  trees.  Thirty-four  differ- 
ent species  were  found  nesting  on  the  twenty-three  acres 
examined,  with  a  total  of  148  pairs  of  native  birds  and 
thirteen  pairs  of  English  sparrows. 

"  An  approximate  average  of  one  pair  of  birds  to  each 
acre  of  farm  land  was  found,  but  individual  censuses  show 
that  it  is  possible,  under  strictly  farm  conditions,  very 
largely  to  increase  this  number.  Near  Wellington,  Va., 
a  tract  of  49  acres  of  a  dairy  farm,  of  rather  less  than  the 
average  of  plowed  land,  supported  a  bird  population  of 
137  pairs,  or  3  pairs  to  the  acre.  .  .  .  Near  Albany,  Mo., 
80  acres  was  divided  into  14  acres  of  plowed  land,  27  acres 
of  hayfields,  a  brushy  pasture,  with  a  little  heavy  timber 
along  the  banks  of  a  small  stream,  and  the  customary  farm- 
yard, orchard,  garden,  etc.  The  conditions  for  bird  life 
were  probably  more  favorable  than  the  average,  but  not 
sufficiently  different  to  account  for  the  298  pairs  of  birds 
nesting  on  the  tract." 

"  On  a  50  acre  tract  at  Viresca,  Va.,  where  the  birds 
have  been  strictly  protected  during  the  last  seven  years, 


MUTUAL  AID  95 

exact  censuses  show  a  50  per  cent  increase  in  the  birds 
during  the  last  four  years."  32 

After  twenty-five  years  of  agitation  the  government  of 
the  United  States  began  in  1913  the  control  of  all  migra- 
tory birds,  its  law  supplanting  all  state  laws,  determining 
the  conditions  under  which  they  may  be  killed  and  sold. 
The  importation  of  egret  plumes,  etc.,  has  been  prohibited. 
Mrs.  Sage  has  given  Marsh  Island  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to 
the  government  as  a  bird  refuge.  The  success  here  has 
stimulated  similar  movements  in  Europe.  Game  pre- 
serves are  being  established  by  both  state  and  national  gov- 
ernments as  well  as  by  private  citizens.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  hope  that  we  are  entering  a  new  era  in  our  rela- 
tions to  nature.  The  control  to  be  discussed  in  the  next 
chapter  is  the  direction  of  nature's  forces  to  produce  the 
maximum  of  good  to  ourselves  not  the  reckless  and  short- 
sighted display  of  mere  brute  force  and  the  destruction  of 
the  very  basis  of  our  life. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOE  BEADING 

BRAUN,  MAX.    Animal  Parasites  of  Man.    1906. 

DARWIN,  CHARLES.    The  Formation  of  Vegetable  Mould  Through 

the  Action  of  Worms.    1881. 
DRUMMOND,  H.    The  Ascent  of  Man.    1894. 
FABRE,  J.  H.    Social  Life  in  the  Insect  World.    1912. 
FISHER,  A.  K.    Hawks  and  Owls  of  the  United  States.    1893. 
FORBUSH,  E.  H.    Useful  Birds  and  Their  Protection.    1907. 

"  Game  Birds,  Wild  Fowl  and  Shore  Birds.  1913. 

HERTER,  C.  A.    Biological  Aspects  of  Human  Problems.    1911. 
HORNADAY,  W.  T.    Our  Vanishing  Wild  Life.    1912. 

"  Wild  Life  Conservation  in  Theory  and  Prac- 

tice.   1914. 

KROPOTKIN,  P.    Mutual  Aid.    1902. 
LIPMAN,  J.  G.    Bacteria  in  Kelation  to  Country  Life.    1908. 

32  Bulletin,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  No.  187. 


96  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

MERRIAM,  C.  H.    The  English  Sparrow  in  America.    1889. 
PAMMEL,  J.  H.    Weeds  of  the  Farm  and  Garden.    1911. 
SHELFORD,  V.  E.    Animal  Communities  in  Temperate  America. 

1913. 

SMITH,  J.  B.    Our  Insect  Friends  and  Enemies.    1909. 
THOMSON,  J.  A.    Darwinism  and  Human  Life.    1910. 
WEED,  C.  M.,  and  DEARBORN,  N.    Birds  in  Their  Relations  to 

Man  (2nd  Ed.).    1916. 


SCRIPPS     INSTITUTION 

FOR 
BIOLOGICAL    RESEARCH 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CONTKOL  OF  NATUKE 

Man's  earliest  arms  were  fingers,  teeth,  and  nails, 
And  stones  and  fragments  from  the  branching  woods ; 
Then  copper  next :  and  last,  as  latest  traced, 
The  tyrant,  iron.  — LUCRETIUS. 

Man's  belief  that  he  is  to  dominate  this  earth  has  never 
been  better  expressed  than  by  the  poet  who  first  wrote  the 
words :  "  And  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful  and  mul- 
tiply, and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it:  and  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the 
air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the 
earth."  When  His  Highness,  the  Elephant,  walks  down 
the  street  of  some  Indian  village,  no  person  challenges  his 
right  of  way.  With  one  accord  he  is  given  a  clear  road. 
Yet  on  his  back  is  a  man,  diminutive  by  comparison,  to 
whose  orders  the  giant  is  obedient.  In  this  simple  inci- 
dent we  have  an  epitome  of  history.  Man  is  by  no  means 
one  of  the  largest  and  strongest  animals  of  earth.  Yet 
today  he  is  the  master.  Existence  depends  upon  the  use 
of  the  facilities  offered  by  nature.  Civilization  depends 
upon  the  direction  or  control  of  these  facilities  for  man's 
benefit.  We  must  be  on  guard  lest  we  overemphasize  the 
degree  of  our  mastery.  By  control  we  really  mean  the 
use  of  the  materials  of  nature  to  accomplish  our  ends.  We 
cannot  change  the  law  of  gravity  but  we  can  utilize  it  to 
make  the  weight  run  the  clock  or  the  balloon  to  rise.  We 

97 


98  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cannot  cause  the  wind  to  blow  nor  prevent  it  but  we  can 
make  it  run  the  windmill  and  grind  the  corn  or  drive  the 
sail  boat.  Our  control  over  large  animals  is  based  on  our 
intellectual  superiority,  for  if  the  elephant  bolts  or  the 
horse  runs  we  are  physically  almost  helpless. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  for  long  ages  this 
dominance  did  not  exist.  We  must  picture  primitive  man 
as  living  in  groups,  feeding  on  fruits,  nuts,  insects,  shell- 
fish or  other  easily  obtained  foods.  Once  in  a  while  a 
whale  might  be  cast  on  the  shore  or  an  elephant  killed  by 
accident  and  thus  man  be  given  an  unexpected  feast.  As 
a  rule  when  the  wild  beasts  appeared  man  sought  safety 
in  flight,  not  infrequently  in  vain.  If  food  was  abundant 
he  grew  fat,  if  scanty  he  starved.  For  him,  as  for  us  to- 
day, the  first  steps  in  any  direction  must  have  been  the 
most  difficult.  The  discovery  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
stone  or  club  marked  a  great  epoch.  Crude  as  these  weap- 
ons are,  they  mark  the  beginnings  of  the  control  over  na- 
ture on  which  civilization  depends.  It  shows  how  far  we 
have  lost  sight  of  fundamentals  in  that  we  no  longer  honor 
him  who  first  made  fire  by  rubbing  two  sticks  together, 
and  made  possible  the  torch  to  show  the  path,  the  heat  for 
house  and  body,  the  change  from  raw  to  cooked  food. 

After  man  invented  the  drill  and  bow  drill  for  making 
fire,  long  ages  passed  ere  he  secured  easier  methods.  Un- 
til the  nineteenth  century  flint  and  steel  were  commonly 
used.  The  word  match  was  originally  used  to  indicate 
the  hemp  or  other  fiber  which  carried  the  flame  to  the  oil 
or  powder. 

In  1680  Haukwitz  and  Boyle  used  phosphorus  ignited 
by  friction  to  light  splints  of  wood  dipped  in  sulphur. 
This  was  rather  dangerous.  In  1805  Chancel,  at  Paris, 
devised  the  scheme  of  keeping  asbestos  soaked  in  sulphuric 


THE  CONTROL  OP  NATURE  9& 

acid  in  a  bottle  into  which  a  sulphur-coated  stick  tipped 
with  chlorate  of  potash  and  sugar  was  dipped,  the  fire 
resulting  from  chemical  action.  In  1827  Walker,  of  Eng- 
land, invented  a  friction  match  and  in  1833  the  common 
phosphorous  friction  match  appeared  in  several  places,  not- 
ably Vienna.  The  first  safety  matches  were  made  in 
1852  in  Sweden. 

"  The  physical  forces  and  mechanical  powers  were  at 
first  unknown  and  entirely  useless  to  both  man  and  woman. 
Only  gradually  were  they  brought  within  the  area  of  in- 
telligence and  control.  Savages  know  an  inclined  plane, 
the  wedge,  lever,  a  lubricant,  a  roller,  the  pulley,  in  the 
crude  form,  but  not  the  wheel  in  any  of  its  combina- 
tions. .  .  .  Chief  of  all  should  we  keep  in  mind  the  fly- 
wheel on  the  spindle,  the  first  device  ever  made  by  human 
beings  for  converting  rectilinear  into  circular  motion."  l 
Gladstone  called  the  wheel  the  most  wonderful  of  man's  in- 
ventions, for  there  was  nothing  in  nature  to  suggest  it. 
The  bow  and  arrow  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  great- 
est inventions  of  all  ages.  We  shall  never  know  to  what 
race,  era,  or  continent  these  early  inventors  belonged ;  nor 
whether  the  devices  were  worked  out  in  one  place  and  then 
copied  all  over  earth,  or  rediscovered  in  various  places  by 
many  persons.  Nevertheless,  we  owe  endless  gratitude  to 
those  unknown  inventors  in  the  dim,  gray  dawn  of  his- 
tory who  made  possible  the  first  upward  steps. 

Many  of  man's  early  discoveries,  like  many  of  the  later, 
were  quite  accidental;  others  were  suggested  to  him  by 
animals.  Long  before  he  thought  of  doing  things  himself, 
he  had  found  the  honeycombs  of  the  bees,  had  seen  hawks 
catching  fish,  had  marveled  at  the  delicacy  of  the  spider's 
web  and  understood  its  purpose  and  had  investigated  the 

i  MASON,  0.  T.     Woman's  Share  in  Primitive  Culture,  p.  279. 


100         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

paper  nest  of  the  hornet  and  been  received  with  unexpected 
warmth.  He  had  robbed  the  squirrels  of  their  nuts,  had 
dug  open  the  ants'  nests  and  had  seen  the  ponds  con- 
structed by  beavers.  All  of  these  animals  had  modified 
their  world  to  some  extent  to  meet  their  own  needs.  Many 
had  dug  holes  in  earth  or  trees.  The  stickleback  and 
other  fish  had  made  nests.  Birds,  like  the  cowbird  and 
European  cuckoo,  deposited  their  eggs  in  bird  orphan 
asylums,  unwittingly  conducted  by  other  species,  and  left 
the  labor  of  hatching  and  rearing  to  the  foster  parents. 
Some,  like  the  turtle  dove  and  American  cuckoo,  were 
satisfied  to  make  a  loose  flimsy  framework  of  sticks  as 
apologies  for  nests ;  while  others,  like  the  Baltimore  oriole, 
were  expert  weavers.  From  these  and  the  endless  other 
examples  before  him,  man  must  have  gotten  invaluable 
hints  and  suggestions.  We  must  realize  that  each  step 
led  not  merely  to  better  methods  of  living,  but  also  created 
a  keener  intellectual  appreciation  of  the  possibilities  of 
the  situation  and  thus  stimulated  discovery. 

Why  all  groups  of  men  have  not  equally  profited  from 
these  lessons  must  be  elsewhere  considered.  As  we  glance 
over  the  peoples  on  earth  today  we  find  that  they  may  be 
roughly  classified  in  accordance  with  their  dominant  pur- 
suits as  hunters  or  fishers,  herdsmen,  farmers  and  manu- 
facturers. That  none  of  them  quite  correspond  to  primi- 
tive man  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  all  have  tools 
and  weapons  and  understand  the  art  of  fire  making.  It 
was  formerly  supposed  that  the  entire  human  race  had 
passed  through  these  stages  in  the  order  named.  Now 
that  we  realize  that  man  has  been  on  earth  much  longer 
than  was  formerly  supposed  and  knows  more  about  the 
various  peoples,  it  seems  likely  that  his  forward  march 
has  been  guided  by  his  physical  opportunities  in  large 


101 

measure.  The  Japanese  became  agriculturists  (as  did 
the  Hopi  Indians)  without  domestic  animals,  and  now  are 
becoming  in  a  few  years  skilled  manufacturers  because  of 
contact  with  Western  peoples.  The  Uavajos  were  agri- 
culturists and  hunters;  after  the  Spanish  introduced  the 
sheep,  they  became  herdsmen. 

Whenever  man  made  a  new  invention,  or  discovered 
some  method  of  bettering  himself,  he  did  one  of  two  things : 
either  he  provided  some  sort  of  insurance  against  a  time  of 
need  (as  by  storing  food)  or  else  he  extended  his  own 
powers  in  time  and  space.  He  could  kill  a  rabbit  with  a 
club  or  even  run  down  a  deer,  perchance,  but  the  bow  and 
arrow  brought  great  saving  of  effort  and  made  his  strength 
effective  for  one  or  two  hundred  yards,  thus  radically 
changing  the  nature  of  his  contest  with  other  animals. 
Every  such  saving  of  time  and  effort  increased  his  produc- 
tive ability,  enabled  him  to  have  leisure  for  other  activi- 
ties and  made  possible  the  production  of  surplus  wealth. 
Sad  experience  taught  him  that  the  arrow  shot  from  the 
bow  could  not  always  be  found  or  used  again.  In  some 
such  way  he  discovered  the  great  truth  that  wealth  is  made 
to  be  used  and  so  is  soon  destroyed  and  must  be  replaced. 
Even  his  most  permanent  and  substantial  buildings  seldom 
last  a  century,  and  then  only  with  constant  repair.  When 
the  development  had  gone  far  enough,  he  gradually  changed 
from  casual  to  regular  labor ;  but  long  ere  this  day  dawned, 
his  standards  were  relatively  high.  Thus  he  finds  that 
wealth  is  the  material  basis  for  civilization  and  a  work 
ideal  replaces  one  of  pleasure. 

Whenever  man  has  gone  to  any  region  of  earth  in  which 
it  was  possible  for  man  to  exist,  he  has  found  other  men 
already  on  the  ground.  This  wide  distribution,  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  of  the  higher  animals  has  been 


102         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

possible  because  of  man's  ingenuity  in  using  the  materials 
offered  in  the  various  localities,  his  habit  of  taking  tools, 
plants  and  animals  with  him  and  in  later  periods  the 
maintenance  of  commerce  with  the  old  home.  The  daily 
life  of  these  different  groups  shows  wide  differences,  and 
yet  underlying  all  are  certain  fundamentals  which  may  be 
indicated.  If  man  is  to  exist  —  particularly  if  he  is  to 
acquire  any  degree  of  culture  —  he  must  secure  a  perma- 
nent food  supply,  get  adequate  clothing  and  find  or  con- 
struct caves,  houses  or  shelters  of  some  sort.  In  the 
higher  stages  some  control  of  light,  heat  and  power  is 
also  essential.  In  addition  protection  against  enemies, 
whatever  these  may  be,  is,  to  say  the  least,  desirable. 
The  obviously  dangerous  enemies  of  primitive  man  were 
the  large  animals,  while  civilized  man  must  defend  him- 
self against  the  minute  forms  of  life  which  we  may  group 
under  the  term  contagious  diseases.  Inasmuch  as  a  mere 
list  of  man's  achievements  would  fill  volumes,  we  can  give 
here  only  a  few  illustrations  of  the  various  ways  in  which 
man  exercises  his  control.  Furthermore,  we  must  limit 
ourselves  to  the  bases  of  our  own  civilization. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  evidence  of  man's  control  is 
the  decrease  in  the  amount  of  land  required  as  civilization 
develops. 

"  Hunter  tribes  on  the  outskirts  of  the  habitable  area,  as 
in  Arctic  America  and  Siberia,  require  from  70  to  200 
square  miles  per  capita;  in  arid  lands,  like  the  Kalahari 
Desert  and  Patagonia,  40  to  200  square  miles  per  capita ; 
in  choice  districts  and  combining  with  the  chase  some 
primitive  agriculture,  as  did  the  Cherokee,  Shawnee  and 
Iroquois  Indians,  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo  and  the  Papuans 
of  Xew  Guinea,  1.2  to  2  square  miles  per  capita. 

"  Pastoral  nomads  show  a  density  of  from  2  to  5  to  the 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       103 

square  mile ;  practicing  some  agriculture,  as  in  Kordofan 
and  Sennar  districts  of  eastern  Sudan,  10  to  15  to  the 
square  mile.  Agriculture,  undeveloped  but  combined 
with  some  trade  and  industry  as  in  equatorial  Africa, 
Borneo  and  most  of  the  Central  American  States,  sup- 
ports 5  to  15  to  the  square  mile;  practiced  with  European 
methods  in  young  or  colonial  lands,  as  in  Arkansas,  Texas, 
Minnesota,  Hawaii,  Canada  and  Argentine,  or  in  European 
lands  with  unfavorable  climate,  up  to  25  to  the  square 
mile. 

"  Pure  agricultural  lands  of  Central  Europe  support  100 
to  the  square  mile,  and  those  of  southern  Europe  200; 
when  combining  some  industry,  from  250  to  300.  But 
these  figures  rise  to  500  or  more  in  lowland  India  and 
China.  Industrial  districts  of  modern  Europe,  such  as 
England,  Belgium,  Saxony,  Departments  Nord  and  Khone 
in  Erance,  show  a  density  of  500  to  800  to  the  square 
mile."  2 

A  great  change  from  extensive  to  intensive  agriculture  is 
now  taking  place  in  this  country.  In  the  Middle  West  two 
men  will  do  all  the  work  save  at  special  rush  times  on  a 
farm  of  two  hundred  acres,  while  in  highly  developed 
market  gardening  in  the  East  about  one  man  per  acre  is 
required.  Less  land  is  required,  but  at  a  steadily  dimin- 
ishing return  per  man. 

In  order  to  carry  on  his  activities  man  had  to  be  able 
to  use  his  eyes,  that  is  to  see.  In  the  early  ages  then  he 
had  to  depend  on  the  light  furnished  by  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars.  Later  the  glare  of  the  bonfire  or  the  flickering 
pine  knot  helped  him  find  his  way  in  the  dark.  In  time 
the  knot  yielded  place  to  the  torch  or  lamp  with  a  wick  of 
some  vegetable  fiber  and  supplied  with  animal  or  vegetable 

2  SEMPLE,  E.  T.    o.  c.,  p.  65. 


104         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

oil.  Candles  of  wax  or  beef-tallow  were  made  by  the  Ro- 
mans and  there  were  guilds  of  candle-makers  in  north  Eu- 
rope in  the  thirteenth  century.  Sperm  candles  appear 
about  1750  and  become  the  standard  of  light.  Even  to- 
day by  the  term  candle-power  we  mean  a  sperm  candle  l/$ 
of  a  pound  in  weight  burning  120  grains  per  hour.  A 
private  house  was  illuminated  by  coal-gas  in  1792  in  Eng- 
land; its  use  in  London  began  in  1807;  but  it  was  not 
common  until  1819 ;  while  the  use  of  kerosene  was  not 
general  even  in  America  until  after  1859.  Electric  light 
was  still  a  curiosity  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  in  1876, 
while  the  regular  use  of  acetylene  is  still  later. 

Man's  advance  in  any  one  art  is  always  conditioned  upon 
the  development  of  other  arts  whose  products  must  be 
used  in  the  first.  Eor  instance,  modern  surgery  turns 
upon  the  use  of  mirrors,  artificial  lights,  antiseptic  dress- 
ings and  sharp  cutting  instruments,  as  well  as  on  a  greater 
knowledge  of  anatomy.  So  primitive  man  learned  to 
construct  rude  shelters  of  leaves,  branches  or  tree  trunks 
felled  by  fire;  but,  practically  speaking,  he  could  neither 
make  nor  use  lumber  until  he  had  possessed  himself  of 
metal  tools.  He  came  therefore  to  depend  on  bricks, 
sun-dried  at  first,  or  on  stones  for  his  better  structures. 
When  once  he  had  discovered  the  principle  of  the  arch  he 
could  erect  massive  and  enduring  monuments.  Yet  until 
he  had  domesticated  animals  the  human  cost  of  a  large 
building  must  have  been  enormous.  Unless  the  ancient 
Egyptians  possessed  machinery  of  which  all  record  has 
been  lost,  what  human  energy  must  have  been  required  in 
the  construction  of  the  pyramids ! 

We  have  already  seen  how  important  the  hydrocarbons 
are  to  all  organisms.  They  have  been  equally  valuable  to 
man  in  his  arts.  Long  ages  ago  in  the  Carboniferous 


THE  CONTKOL  OF  NATUKE       105 

era  vast  forests  grew  and  died ;  and  by  a  series  of  changes, 
chemical  as  well  as  mechanical,  were  turned  into  coal  in 
its  various  forms.  We  may  classify  these  in  accordance 
with  their  carbon  content,  remembering  that  the  series 
really  begins  with  living  wood  containing  about  50  per 
cent  carbon  and  ends  with  the  diamond  which  is  prac- 
tically pure  carbon:  Lignite,  67  per  cent;  cannel,  6-4 
per  cent ;  bituminous,  88  per  cent,  and  anthracite,  93  per 
cent ;  to  which  we  should  add  graphite,  95  per  cent.  That 
these  have  different  properties  and  are  valuable  for  various 
purposes  is  well  known.- 

Coal  was  more  or  less  known  to  the  Romans  and  was 
slightly  used  by  them  as  well  as  by  the  Chinese.  It  was 
mined  in  small  quantities  in  England  before  the  coming  of 
the  Saxons.  Little  attention  was  paid  to  it  until  the  grad- 
ual decrease  in  the  forested  area  by  the  ninth  century. 
There  is  an  English  charter  permitting  the  freemen  of 
Newcastle  to  mine  coal  dating  from  1239.  Thereafter  it 
came  gradually  into  use  but  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  two  ships  were  able  to  keep  the  London  market 
supplied.  There  was  much  opposition  to  its  use  on  the 
ground  of  the  smoke  and  dirt  and  at  times  it  was  pro- 
hibited particularly  during  the  session  of  Parliament. 
En  America  bituminous  coal  was  mined  in  Virginia  about 
1750  and  at  Pittsburgh  in  the  following  decade.  An- 
thracite was  discovered  at  Wilkesbarre  in  1762  but  was 
little  used,  as  the  people  did  not  know  how  to  burn  it. 
It  was  used  at  Carlisle  during  the  Revolution  for  the 
manufacture  of  firearms  but  as  late  as  1820  the  Philadel- 
phia market  was  satisfied  with  365  tons  from  Lehigh. 

The  first  coal  product  to  be  commercially  used  was  il- 
luminating gas  which  dates,  as  above  indicated,  from  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  process  of  manu- 


106         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

facture  many  other  substances  are  given  off  which  were 
wasted  at  first  but  which  have  now  become  very  valuable. 
The  first  of  these  is  crude  tar;  then  by  further  distilla- 
tion, naphtha,  ammonia,  benzene,  vaseline,  the  heavy  lubri- 
cating oils,  paraffin,  aniline  and  others.  By  different  pro- 
cesses we  get  coke,  soot  and  lampblack. 

Natural  petroleum  was  known  at  least  five  centuries 
before  Christ  and  was  used,  it  is  believed,  in  keeping  alight 
the  sacred  fires  in  the  Persian  temples.  Marco  Polo  writ- 
ing about  A  .D.  1260  mentions  its  use.  Until  the  discov- 
ery of  the  oil  wells  of  Pennsylvania  it  had  little  impor- 
tance. So  too  asphalt  seems  to  have  been  known  and  used 
in  Egypt  and  Babylon  but  only  recently,  through  the  dis- 
coveries of  the  lakes  in  Trinidad  and  elsewhere,  has  it 
come  into  general  use. 

IsTow  either  directly  from  coal  or  from  related  sub- 
stances come  a  considerable  percentage  of  some  of  our  most 
highly  valued  commodities.  Aniline  dyes  which  have 
made  possible  the  colors  of  our  clothing  materials  were 
developed  after  1836  and  became  important  by  the  middle 
of  the  century.  Another  product  is  carbolic  acid. 

Meantime  coal,  kerosene  and  gasolene  furnish  us  with 
light  for  our  houses  and  streets,  with  fuel  for  our  engines 
and  motors,  with  heat  for  our  buildings;  and  have  made 
possible  a  wonderful  change  in  our  daily  life  and  indus- 
trial processes.  Through  their  use  we  are  able  to  make 
iron  the  basic  material  of  our  economic  life. 

The  use  of  the  sharp  edge  of  shells  or  slices  of  stone  as 
scrapers  or  knives  marked  a  great  advance.  A  -new  era 
dawned  when  man  first  discovered  the  softer  metals,  cop- 
per, lead  and  tin.  The  next  stage  is  marked  by  the  making 
of  the  alloys  —  brass  and  bronze.  Relatively  late,  man 
began  to  forge  tools  of  iron  and  really  entered  upon  the 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       107 

metal  stage.  We  should  not  forget  that  until  the  nine- 
teenth century  man  depended  upon  the  scanty  supply  of 
pure  metal  he  could  find.  The  ores  which  today  form  the 
basis  of  the  iron  industry  were  as  meaningless  to  him  as 
was  the  bog  iron,  so  prized  by  the  first  whites  in  America, 
to  the  Indians.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  today  to  say 
that  our  industry  rests  on  iron  foundations.  But  pure 
iron  is  rather  soft  and  rusts  badly,  hence  it  is  hard  to  pre- 
serve tools  or  keep  sharp  cutting  edges.  The  next  great 
step  was  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  making  steel  by  mixing 
carbon  with  the  iron.  Even  this  could  not  be  used  in 
large  quantities,  because  of  its  cost,  until  Bessemer  in- 
vented his  process  in  1864.  The  cost  of  steel  rails  for 
the  railways  soon  fell  from  $175  per  ton  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  $30.  Today  America  produces  40  per  cent  of 
the  steel  of  the  world.  But  carbon  steel  has  certain  de- 
fects. It  shows  a  crystalline  structure  and  cracks  rather 
easily.  Now  nickel  steels  are  used  for  many  purposes  as 
they  are  harder  and  stronger  and  do  not  rust.  Combined 
with  chromium  and  molybdenum,  steels  are  now  made 
which  resist  such  strong  acids  as  hydrochloric  or  nitric,  in 
some  cases  even  aqua  regia.  Steels  which  remain  hard 
at  high  temperatures  are  produced  by  alloys  with  chrom- 
ium, tungsten  and  vanadium.  Immense  improvement  in 
cutting  tools  has  come  through  these  new  alloys.  Safes 
are  now  made  of  these  alloys  which  have  not  yielded  to 
one  and  one-half  hours'  exposure  to  the  intense  heat  of 
oxyhydrogen  and  oxyacetylene  flames.  These  discoveries 
conditioned  as  they  are  upon  the  newer  chemistry  indi- 
cate that  the  possibilities  of  metallurgy  are  far  from  ex- 
hausted. It  is  a  long  journey  from  the  fire-hardened  stick, 
which  was  plow  and  hoe  to  the  primitive  agriculturist,  to 
the  iron  plows,  mowers  and  binders  of  today ;  but  farming 


108         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tools  changed  less  from  the  time  of  Herodotus  to  1850 
than  they  have  since,  so  recent  is  this  control.  By  1868 
iron  bridges  began  to  replace  wooden.  Now  all  structural 
iron  work  is  made  according  to  plans  so  that  it  can  be 
rapidly  placed  and  fastened. 

It  is  hard  for  those  of  us  who  live  in  coal-burning  re- 
gions to  realize  that  the  mass  of  humanity  does  not  de- 
pend on  it  for  heat.  It  is  even  harder  to  realize  that 
chimneys  were  unknown  before  the  twelfth  century  and 
that  fireplaces  when  first  used  had  very  short  flues,  the 
smoke  making  its  way  to  the  outer  air  through  openings 
in  the  wall  just  above  the  fire-place.  Even  today  the 
brazier  of  coal  or  charcoal  is  characteristic  of  southern 
Europe.  In  1744  Benjamin  Franklin  devised  the  cast- 
iron  open  heater  still  known  by  his  name,  while  cast-iron 
box  stoves  appear  by  1752  and  the  base-burner  not  until 
1830.  Like  all  other  really  great  machines,  the  steam- 
engine  is  a  product  of  many  ages  and  many  inventions. 
One  hundred  and  thirty  years  before  Christ,  Hero  de- 
scribed a  simple  engine  of  no  practical  use  and  there  was 
no  advance  upon  his  knowledge  until  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. In  1663  Edward  Somerset  used  an  engine  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  water  and  the  first  engine  of  real  com- 
mercial value  was  made  in  1698  by  Thomas  Savery.  The 
discoveries  of  Denis  Papin  (1690),  of  Thomas  Newcomer 
(1705)  and  others  culminated  in  the  work  of  James  Watt 
(1763).  By  1802  William  Symington  had  constructed  a 
tug  operated  by  an  engine  and  in  1807  Robert  Fulton 
made  his  world  famed  trips.  In  1829  George  Stephen- 
son  built  the  first  locomotive  "  The  Rocket "  and  began 
the  operation  of  the  first  railroad,  built,  appropriately 
enough,  for  the  hauling  of  coal.  The  turbine  engines  date 
from  about  1884;  the  Diesel  engines  from  1897. 


THE  CONTEOL  OF  NATURE       109 

Inasmuch  as  the  coal  supply  of  the  world  is  limited  it 
becomes  a  matter  of  importance  to  know  that  it  is  not 
wasted.  When  we  realize  that  some  90  per  cent  of  the 
heat  goes  up  the  chimney  rather  than  warms  the  house  it  is 
clear  that  there  is  great  loss.  The  ordinary  reciprocating 
engine  utilizes  only  9  per  cent  of  the  energy  of  the  fuel,  the 
turbine  some  12  per  cent,  while  the  new  Diesel  engines 
are  claimed  to  get  36  per  cent.  Many  problems  must  be 
solved  ere  the  last  mentioned  engines  are  generally  avail- 
able, not  to  speak  of  the  problem  of  reducing  the  waste 
still  further. 

Until  the  development  of  the  coal  and  iron  industry, 
there  had  been  little  improvements  upon  the  methods  of 
control  of  the  Romans.  With  the  invention  of  power 
machinery  comes  a  great  series  of  parallel  developments 
of  which  electricity  is  an  excellent  illustration. 

Through  all  time  the  lightning  had  terrified  men  and 
stirred  their  imagination.  Some  of  the  simpler  phenom- 
ena of  electricity  and  magnetism  were  known.  Franklin, 
in  1752,  proved  the  identity  of  lightning  and  electric 
sparks.  Then  began  one  of  the  most  wonderful  series  of 
discoveries  and  inventions  the  world  has  seen.  To  this 
series  contributions  were  made  by  men  of  all  the  civilized 
races  and  lands.  It  is  impossible  even  to  list  these  men 
and  their  discoveries.  We  need  only  recall  the  electric 
light,  telephone,  telegraph,  ocean  cable,  phonograph, 
kinetoscope  and  other  machines  which  have  almost  revolu- 
tionized conditions  of  life. 

Great  electric  power  plants  appeared  after  1890  and 
a  new  group  of  industries  developed.  Aluminum,  which 
cost  before  $25  a  pound  to  produce,  is  now  secured  for  a 
few  cents.  Calcium  carbide  from  which  acetylene  light 
is  made  now  retails  at  less  than  four  cents  a  pound.  There 


110         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

has  come  also  the  present  possibility  of  transporting  power 
over  long  distances  by  using  the  electric  current.  Thus 
we  may  utilize  water  power  miles  from  its  source  or  burn 
coal,  oftentimes  of  too  low  grade  to  justify  shipment,  at 
the  mine  or  central  plant  and  thus  save  the  cost  of  haul- 
ing. In  spite  of  these  wonderful  achievements  we  are  in 
reality  just  starting  our  use  of  electricity. 

Accompanying  the  development  of  power  machinery 
and  electricity,  and  to  a  considerable  degree  made  possible 
by  them,  has  come  a  wonderful  advance  in  chemistry. 
This  does  not  merely  increase  our  power  of  analysis  re- 
sulting in  greater  knowledge,  but  enables  us  to  produce 
new  things.  It  is  synthetic. 

By  electrolysis  an  iron  is  now  produced  not  much 
harder  than  aluminum  which  can  be  magnetized  much 
more  quickly  than  ordinary  iron,  and  which  loses  its  mag- 
netism more  readily,  thus  greatly  increasing  the  efficiency 
of  electromotors.  Electrolytic  processes  are  largely  em- 
ployed in  producing  nitrogen  from  the  air,  in  the  making 
of  chlorates  and  in  the  recovery  of  the  tin  from  old  cans. 
Electro-chemical  works  are  now  producing  rubies  and 
sapphires  identical  with  natural  stones,  save  in  their 
source.  The  aniline  dyes  obtained  from  the  hydrocarbons 
contained  in  coal  tar  are  so  varied  that  the  chemist  claims 
that  he  can  produce  almost  any  shade  of  color  in  wool, 
cotton,  silk  or  paper.  Even  the  purple  of  the  ancients 
can  now  be  manufactured.  Medicinal  drugs  artificially 
created,  such  as  phenacetin,  sulphonal,  adrenalin,  caffein, 
theobromin,  tannin,  camphor  and  atropin  are  on  the  mar- 
ket. The  odor  of  the  rose,  violet  and  lily-of-the-valley 
can  be  duplicated  in  the  laboratory.  Artificial  silk  may 
yet  rival  the  genuine.  A  non-inflammable  celluloid  (eel- 
Ion)  has  been  devised.  In  1894  the  fact  that  rubber  could 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       111 

be  synthetically  produced  was  discovered  by  Tilden  but 
the  process  was  not  invented  till  1909  by  Fritz  Hofman, 
and  is  still  too  expensive  for  commercial  use.  Indeed, 
one  might  say  that  life  itself  is  the  only  thing  the  chemist 
cannot  produce.  Some  of  his  compounds  come  so  close  to 
the  line  that  there  is  growing  belief  amongst  scientists  that 
some  day  some  one  will  hit  upon  the  secret. 

This  crude  sketch  of  the  physical  factors  must  suffice. 
We  must  now  consider  the  control  of  the  organic  world, 
and  that  largely  from  the  standpoint  of  food.  In  the 
lower  stages,  man  uses  a  wide  variety  of  both  plants  and 
animals ;  but  as  the  higher  levels  are  reached,  he  comes  to 
depend  on  the  relatively  few  that  have  proven  most  satis- 
factory and  reliable,  either  in  reality  or  in  fancy.  Thus 
on  earth  today  not  more  than  300  species  of  plants  are 
widely  used  out  of  the  150,000  man  has  listed  in  his  cata- 
logues ;  not  more  than  200  animals  are  of  importance  out 
of  the  vast  hordes  (millions,  perhaps)  that  exist. 

When  the  mists  begin  to  clear  at  the  dawn  of  history, 
we  find  the  peoples  of  Egypt  and  southwestern  Asia  in 
possession  of  a  number  of  the  most  important  plants  known. 
When  America  was  discovered,  the  Indians  in  America 
were  cultivating  about  all  the  important  native  plants 
known  to  us.  So  ancient  is  agriculture  that  De  Candolle 
says:  "Men  have  not  discovered  and  cultivated  within 
the  last  two  thousand  years  a  single  species  which  can  rival 
maize,  rice,  the  sweet  potato,  the  potato,  the  bread  fruit, 
the  date,  cereals,  millets,  sorghum,  the  banana  and  soy. 
These  date  from  three,  four  or  five  thousand  years,  perhaps 
even  in  some  cases  six  thousand  years."  3  This  statement 
applies  primarily  to  food  plants. 

At  least  two  plants  of  very  great  importance  have  been 

SDE  CANDOIXE,  A.    Origin  of  Cultivated  Plants,  p.  451. 


112         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

brought  under  cultivation  recently  and  both  come  from 
South  America.  The  highly  esteemed  medicine  quinine 
comes  from  the  cinchona  tree.  There  are  ten  or  twelve 
important  varieties  of  the  cinchona,  all  native  of  the  moun- 
tainous western  coast,  from  which  quinine  is  derived. 
These  were  transplanted  to  India  in  1861  and  have  suc- 
ceeded under  cultivation.  It  is  stated  that  the  rubber 
goods  now  manufactured  each  year  on  earth  are  worth 
$750,000,000,  the  raw  material  being  valued  at  $250,- 
000,000.  Brazil  exported  2,671  tons  in  1860,  15,354  in 
1890,  and  38,200  in  1910.  Up  to  1900  the  wild  plants 
were  the  source  of  supply.  Of  these  there  are  many  va- 
rieties, but  the  chief  dependence  is  upon  the  Para  rubber 
tree.  Since  1900  this  plant  has  been  set  out  in  great  plan- 
tations, one  of  20,000  acres  is  reported  in  Sumatra.  By 
1913  there  were  250,000  acres  planted  in  Ceylon;  420,000 
in  the  Malay  States ;  40,000  in  South  India ;  45,000  in  the 
German  colonies  and  100,000  more  in  Mexico,  Brazil, 
West  Indies  and  South  Africa.  In  spite  of  this  and  the 
fact  that  since  1880  the  United  States  has  used  two  pounds 
of  reclaimed  rubber  to  one  of  new,  the  price  has  increased, 
owing  to  the  tremendous  demand  for  insulating  material 
for  electric  purposes  and  more  particularly  to  the  world- 
wide increase  in  automobiles. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  origin  of  the  plants  that 
have  been  of  the  largest  value  to  the  race  as  a  whole,  omit- 
ting for  the  sake  of  brevity  plants  used  chiefly  for  lumber, 
medicine  or  mechanical  purposes.  From  southern  and 
eastern  Asia  came  the  orange,  lemon,  rice,  sugar  cane, 
banana,  apricot,  peach,  tea  and  cotton;  from  the  East 
Indies  the  cocoanut.  From  southwestern  Asia  and  north- 
eastern Africa  flax  and  barley  (two  of  the  oldest  cultivated 
plants),  wheat  (also  very  old  and  grown  in  China  2700 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       113 

B.C.)  ;  olive,  grape,  sour  cherry,  plum,  almond,  quince,  fig, 
date  palm,  onion,  cabbage,  radish,  turnip,  lettuce,  spin- 
ach, lentils,  numerous  gourds  and  melons,  garden  peas  and 
coffee  (Abyssinia).  Europe  contributed  the  apple,  pear, 
gooseberry,  currant,  oats;  while  rye  is  a  late  comer  from 
the  distant  north  of  the  Caspian.  Central  and  South 
America  have  furnished  potato,  sweet  potato,  maize,  man- 
ioc, pineapple,  tomato,  cacao,  tobacco  and  perhaps  Sea 
Island  cotton.  The  entire  balance  of  North  America  has 
made  almost  no  contribution.  To  quote  De  Candolle 
again :  "  A  noteworthy  fact  is  the  absence  in  some  coun- 
tries of  indigenous  cultivated  plants.  For  instance,  we 
have  none  from  the  Arctic  or  Antarctic  regions,  where,  it  is 
true,  the  flowers  consist  of  but  few  species.  The  United 
States,  in  spite  of  their  vast  territory,  which  will  soon  sup- 
port hundreds  of  millions  of  inhabitants,  only  yields  as  nu- 
tritious plants  worth  cultivating  the  Jerusalem  artichoke 
and  the  gourds  (pumpkin  and  squash).  Zizania  aquaiica 
(wild  rice)  which  the  natives  gathered  is  a  grass  too  infe- 
rior to  rice  to  make  it  worth  planting  it.  They  had  a  few 
bulbs  and  edible  berries,  but  they  have  not  tried  to  cultivate 
them,  having  early  received  the  maize  which  was  worth  far 
more."  4  Our  vast  hay  crop  is  largely  based  on  the  clovers 
and  timothy  of  Europe  or  the  alfalfa  of  Asia.  In  our 
orchard  fruit  trees  traveling  both  east  and  west  from  Asia 
again  interlock  branches,  or  blend  as  in  the  Santa  Clara 
Valley  in  spring  in  one  great  orgy  of  color.  Today  agents 
are  searching  the  earth  to  find  plant  types  adapted  to 
certain  conditions  and  the  last  decade  has  witnessed  the 
introduction  of  many  new  forms  that  promise  much  for 
the  future.  Throughout  all  historic  time  this  exchange 
of  plants  has  gone  on  —  sometimes  with  wonderful  rapid- 

CANDOLLE,  A.    o.  c.,  p.  448. 


114         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

ity.  One  needs  but  recall  the  rapid  spread  of  manioc 
in  Africa,  the  potato  in  Ireland  or  the  world-wide  exten- 
sion of  the  use  of  tobacco. 

Man  has  not  merely  taken  advantage  of  the  new  types 
that  have  appeared  but  by  deliberate  crossing  he  has  elimi- 
nated weaknesses  or  combined  good  traits.  He  has  thus 
developed  the  old  "  love  apple,"  which  was  little  more 
than  a  seedy  core  with  an  attractive  skin,  into  the  luscious 
tomato,  now  one  of  the  most  important  and  valuable  vege- 
tables of  the  garden.  He  has  produced  types  yielding 
larger  crops  of  seed  or  stalk.  He  has  combined  sturdy, 
disease-resisting  stocks  with  those  producing  superior 
fruit.  He  has  discovered  the  secrets  of  grafting  and  bud- 
ding and  has  obtained  thus  better  plants  and  rapidly 
spread  new  varieties.  The  production  by  Burbank  of  a 
spineless  cactus  of  value  as  forage  may  make  possible  the 
use  of  great  areas  of  semi-arid  land. 

Just  when  man  began  to  notice  that  some  plants  or 
seeds  were  larger  or  better  than  others,  we  shall  never 
learn.  All  that  we  know  is  that  he  did  and  thus  began 
a  process  of  selection  which  has  given  us  varieties  superior 
from  our  standpoint  to  the  originals.  That  this  selection 
did  not  begin  early  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 
our  own  farmers  paid  little  attention  to  seed  corn  or 
cotton  until  the  last  two  decades.  The  very  success  of 
this  process  has  led  to  the  failure  to  use  many  species 
which  might  perchance  have  become  quite  as  valuable  as 
the  others.  Thus  it  is  easier  to  borrow  plants  from  other 
people  than  to  begin  the  long  process  of  developing  a  new 
variety.  It  is  this  fact  quite  as  much  as  mere  paucity 
of  possible  varieties  which  has  made  the  contributions  of 
the  newer  continents  seem  so  insignificant. 

The  absence  of  nuts  from  this  list  will  be  noted.     These 


THE  CONTKOL  OF  NATUKE       115 

were  much  used  in  early  days  both  for  man  and  beast  — 
the  oak  groves,  for  instance,  being  highly  esteemed  be- 
cause of  the  acorns  for  the  swine.  They  are  not,  how- 
ever, easily  cultivated.  Primitive  man  uses  annuals  or 
biennials  in  preference  even  to  perennials.  His  habita- 
tion must  be  very  permanent  ere  he  turns  his  attention  to 
trees.  Slowly  man  has  come  to  recognize  the  value  of 
nuts  and  fruit  and  some  day  ere  long  he  will  devote  much 
more  attention  to  the  crops  that  do  not  need  replanting 
more  than  once  or  twice  a  century.  In  the  United  States 
millions  of  peach,  apple  and  other  fruit  trees  are  planted 
yearly  —  most  of  those  perhaps  die  through  neglect,  but 
the  increase  is  marked.  We  are  coming  to  see  that  many 
steep  hillsides  would  be  far  more  valuable  if  planted  with 
trees  than  they  are  for  tillage,  and  the  belief  in  reforesta- 
tion is  growing. 

Wherever  man  goes  on  earth  he  takes  his  favorite  plants 
and  grows  them  if  possible.  One  needs  but  look  at  the 
United  States  to  see  this.  With  the  exception  of  the  po- 
tato and  corn  our  cultivated  food  and  fodder  plants  have 
been  introduced.  In  one  century  we  have  raised  cotton 
from  an  insignificant  position  to  the  rank  of  the  most  im- 
portant supply  of  clothing  in  the  world,  and  incidentally 
give  the  world  a  better  supply  of  clothing  than  it  has  ever 
had.  Our  cotton  crop  is  now  some  13,000,000  bales,  or 
about  two-thirds  of  the  world's  supply.  But  cotton  came 
from  India  and  was  largely  an  ornamental  until  the  cot- 
ton gin  was  invented.  Our  potatoes  came  from  South 
America  and  were  not  known  here  till  after  the  coming  of 
the  Europeans. 

The  cultivation  of  one  type  of  plants  may  make  pos- 
sible the  increased  use  of  other  kinds.  The  vast  increase 
in  the  use  of  sugar  made  from  cane  or  beets  makes  palatable 


116         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

many  of  the  cereals  and  sourer  fruits,  and  thus  stimulates 
their  cultivation  as  well  as  enriches  our  diet. 

Today,  thanks  to  man's  inventions,  we  are  no  longer 
limited  in  diet  to  the  plants  of  our  own  locality.  Com- 
merce places  at  our  doors  the  products  of  a  large  part  of 
the  earth.  The  Boston  family  drinks  coffee  labeled 
"  Mocha  "  which  grew  in  Brazil ;  or  tea,  from  China.  The 
spices  come  from  the  Orient,  the  potatoes  from  Maine, 
the  fruit  from  California  or  the  West  Indies  and  the  beef 
from  Montana  or  Argentina.  This  result  is  secured  not 
merely  by  speed  of  transport  but  by  ability  to  control 
temperature.  Thus  have  arisen  two  apparently  opposite 
processes:  cold  storage  and  hothouse  production. 

Cold  storage  is  frequently  decried  by  thoughtless  peo- 
ple as  if  it  were  a  scheme  to  put  decayed  foodstuffs  on  the 
market.  This  practice  is  just  as  common  in  communities 
where  there  are  no  opportunities  for  cold  storage,  and 
therefore  is  quite  incidental.  The  real  virtue  of  the  sys- 
tem (aside  from  facilitating  transportation  in  warm 
weather)  lies  in  the  fact  that  some  commodity  such  as 
eggs  may  be  stored  when  they  are  very  abundant,  as  in 
spring  and  early  summer,  and  marketed  when  they  are 
very  scarce,  as  in  December.  Were  it  not  for  this  the 
price  of  eggs  would  be  prohibitive  to  all  but  the  rich  dur- 
ing the  winter,  and  there  would  not  be  enough  eggs  to  go 
around  at  any  price.  Cold  storage  thus  tends  to  equalize 
both  price  and  supply. 

Hothouses  enable  us  to  grow  plants  at  otherwise  im- 
possible seasons.  The  development  of  this  industry  has 
been  enormous  and  it  is  hard  to  realize  the  amount  of 
fruit,  green  vegetables,  mushrooms,  flowers,  etc.,  now  sup- 
plied to  our  city  markets  thereby.  Even  in  our  North- 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       117 

ern  cities  it  is  possible  to  get  such  articles  practically 
throughout  the  year. 

So  far  we  have  considered  man's  control  of  the  plant 
world  almost  solely  from  the  standpoint  of  food  supply; 
but  there  are  other  very  important  aspects  to  be  mentioned. 
Up  to  the  present  time  most  of  these  other  uses  have  illus- 
trated man's  dependence  upon  nature  rather  than  his  con- 
trol. A  large  part  of  the  human  race  depends  directly 
upon  wood  for  its  supply  of  fuel.  Trees  have  also  fur- 
nished the  bulk  of  man's  building  materials.  These  two 
combined  have  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  forests 
over  large  areas.  The  growing  scarcity  has  forced  man 
to  try  to  find  substitutes  for  wood  and  also  has  led  to  the 
planting  of  forests.  Our  great  railroad  corporations  are 
planting  extensive  tracts  to  provide  ties,  etc.,  for  the  fu- 
ture. In  such  countries  as  Germany,  forestry  has  become 
a  profession  and  strict  public  control  is  exercised  over  the 
timber  resources.  In  large  part  also  man's  supply  of 
medicine  is  still  gotten  from  wild  plants,  though  this  is 
decreasingly  true. 

That  a  "  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone  "  was  recog- 
nized long  ago.  One  of  the  most  important  uses  of 
plants  is  as  "  ornamentals."  The  beauty  of  leaf  and 
flower,  the  pleasing  perfume  early  caught  man's  attention. 
Gradually  he  began  to  cultivate  flowers.  Western  Europe 
thinks  of  the  Turk  as  the  embodiment  of  cruelty,  forget- 
ting among  other  things  that  to  the  Turk's  love  of  flowers 
it  is  indebted  for  the  tulips,  lilacs,  hyacinths,  fritillaria, 
impatiens,  buttercup,  mimosa,  hibiscus  and  horsechestnut. 
The  devotion  of  various  peoples  to  certain  plants  is  well 
known,  for  instance:  the  Egyptians  to  the  lotus  and  the 
Japanese  to  cherry  blossoms  or  iris.  Man  has  taken  his 


118         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

flowers  whenever  possible  on  his  migrations.  Indeed, 
some  of  our  weed  pests  were  carried  because  of  their  flow- 
ers. From  Europe  came  with  early  settlers  crown  im- 
perials, bleeding  hearts,  peonies,  and  many  others  to  fill 
"the  old-fashioned  hardy  garden."  In  truly  human-like 
fashion,  our  forefathers  ignored  in  large  measure  the  na- 
tive plants,  but  returning  ships  took  back  many  of  the 
types  not  known  in  Europe.  There  our  native  laurels, 
rhododendrons,  etc.,  won  great  favor  and  today  the  agaves 
and  opuntias  impress  one  as  having  always  belonged  to 
the  Mediterranean  district.  To  further  penalize  our  neg- 
lect, we  purchase  from  European  nurseries  thousands  of 
dollars'  worth  yearly  of  young  plants  of  our  own  native 
species.  More  recently  American  plants  have  been  given 
larger  recognition.  Asters,  goldenrod,  columbines,  hepa- 
tica,  bloodroot,  cardinal  flower  and  many  others  are  now 
generally  cultivated;  and  perchance  the  day  will  come 
when  our  country  places  as  well  as  our  city  parks  shall 
be  decorated  with  that  glorious  small  tree  —  the  dog- 
wood. The  world-wide  trade  in  flowers  and  plants  is 
enormous.  In  a  recent  American  catalogue,  fifty-two 
pages  were  used  in  listing  flower  seeds  and  one  hundred 
and  eighteen  for  ornamental  plants,  and  our  catalogues 
are  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  some  of  the  European. 
Man's  growing  mastery  and  his  interest  in  flowers  is 
well  shown  by  the  increase  in  the  varieties.  From  the 
three  species  of  dahlias  native  to  Mexico  have  come  over 
eight  hundred  varieties  known  to  commerce.  From  one 
or  two  peonies  of  Chinese  origin  the  Europeans  have  in 
one  century  developed  some  hundreds  of  varieties.  In  a 
few  years,  by  careful  crossing,  the  canna  in  addition  to 
having  beautiful  leaves  has  developed  enormous  flower 
heads.  The  improvements  thus  secured  show  in  size, 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       119 

color,  length  of  flowering  period  and  manner  of  growth 
and  perfume.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  list  of  ornamentals 
is  far  longer  than  the  one  of  food  plants.  Here  personal 
likes  play  a  larger  part  and  uniformity  is  not  so  neces- 
sary. 

Quite  as  important  as  man's  control  of  plant  life  is  his 
domestication  of  animals.  Here  also  the  beginnings  go 
back  beyond  our  records.  The  search  for  the  originals  of 
our  domestic  animals  is  complicated  by  several  factors: 
(1)  we  are  ignorant  of  the  amount  of  variation  since  do- 
mestication; (2)  we  lack  definite  records  as  to  place  of 
domestication;  (3)'  the  fact  that  many  different  wild 
species  are  known  to  have  existed.  Practically  all  of  the 
larger  mammals  were  represented  in  Europe  and  in  Asia. 
It  seems  very  probable  that  centers  of  domestication  are 
to  be  sought  on  both  continents  whence  the  domestic  forms 
were  scattered  and  later  interbred  in  endless  variety. 

Bird  life  is  peculiarly  valuable  in  warm  lands  where 
meat  will  not  keep  long.  Geese  were  kept  in  ancient 
Egypt  and  the  art  of  incubating  eggs  in  manure  was  ap- 
parently understood.  Ducks  were  first  domesticated  in 
the  E'ast  by  Chinese ;  in  the  West  by  the  Romans.  Chick- 
ens were  unknown  to  the  peoples  of  classifical  antiquity. 
Homer  and  Hesiod  never  mention  the  hen  nor  do  the 
older  parts  of  the  Old  Testament.  Yet  Caesar  found  the 
chicken  in  southern  England.  It  was  scattered  through 
Europe  by  the  Germans,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  simi- 
larity of  the  name  in  all  the  old  European  languages.  It 
was  brought  from  northern  India  in  the  Medo-Persian 
campaign  and  gradually  became  known  about  the  Med- 
iterranean. It  is  a  descendant  of  the  bankiva  or  jungle 
fowl.  Now  it  has  spread  all  over  the  earth.  From  Africa 
came  in  olden  time  the  guinea  hen.  The  pea  fowl  of 


120         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

India  during  the  Middle  Ages  was  valued  highly  for  the 
table;  now,  as  an  ornament  only.  Hawks,  falcons  and 
other  birds  once  were  kept  in  large  numbers,  but  now 
relatively  few  are  esteemed  worth  the  trouble.  One  re- 
cent addition  to  the  list  of  which  Americans  boast  is  the 
turkey.  The  ostrich  was  not  kept  until  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Of  four-legged  beasts  not  a  single  one  of  any  special 
importance  has  been  domesticated  within  historic  time. 
The  horse,  cattle,  ass,  camel,  sheep,  goat  and  pig  were  in 
bondage  when  our  records  begin.  These  have  generally 
been  the  most  important,  though  not  known  to  all  the 
groups  of  men.  Aside  from  these,  the  reindeer  in  Arctic 
regions,  the  elephant  in  India,  the  llama  (kept  by  the 
ancient  Peruvians  in  herds  of  thousands  on  the  mountain 
pastures  of  Lake  Titicaca)  and  the  water  buffalo  in  Asia 
are  most  noteworthy. 

The  dog  has  been  one  of  the  best  loved  and  least  useful 
companions  of  man  throughout  the  ages.  He  seems  to 
have  been  domesticated  in  many  quarters  of  the  earth. 
The  first  traces  of  dogs  are  found  in  the  kitchen  middens 
of  Europe  and  somewhat  later  in  the  pile  dwellings  of 
Switzerland.  These  are  small  dogs,  on  the  order  of  the 
terriers.  At  first  the  type  is  very  uniform  and  no  marked 
variations  are  found  till  the  end  of  the  later  Stone  period. 
By  the  end  of  the  Neolithic  era  came  the  large  dogs  of 
the  mastiff  type.  Various  species  of  jackals  and  wolves 
probably  have  been  tamed  in  divers  sections  of  the  earth. 
Apparently  the  first  dogs  were  of  jackal  descent.  Keller 
believes  that  the  shepherd  dog  is  descended  from  the  In- 
dian wolf.  "  It  is  easily  demonstrated  that  the  original 
home  of  the  great  '  dogge '  is  to  be  found  in  the  highlands 
of  Thibet.  They  became  established  in  Europe  at  the  time 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       121 

of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  appeared  in  our  Northern 
Alps  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  century,  where  they  were 
distributed  by  the  Romans."  5  The  grayhounds  are  de- 
scendants of  the  Abyssinian  wolf. 

The  only  people,  so  far  as  we  know,  who  domesticated 
the  cat  were  the  Egyptians,  who  paid  it  high  honor.  They 
had  tamed  it  at  least  1300  years  before  Christ  and  had 
portrayed  it  on  their  monuments  for  the  thousand  years 
preceding.  The  history  of  the  long-haired  Angoras  is 
not  known.  They  appear  to  have  come  from  Central 
Asia.  It  is  likely  that  these  strains  have  not  only  been 
crossed  with  each  other  but  also  with  the  common  wild 
cat  of  Europe.  The  cat  was  not  largely  kept  outside  of 
Egypt  until  the  later  days  of  the  Roman  empire,  even 
though  Greece  and  Rome  had  been  plagued  by  mice  whose 
name  indicated  a  thief  and  whose  natural  enemy  is  de- 
scribed as  the  weasel.  It  spread  to  Italy  about  the  fourth 
century  of  our  era  and  to  the  balance  of  Europe  by  the 
sixth.  About  the  time  of  the  German  invasion  of  Europe 
there  came  in  from  Asia  the  common  gray  rat  in  great 
hordes.  Thenceforth  cats  were  more  highly  esteemed,  so 
some  think.  The  more  savage  brown  rat  arrived  on  the 
scene  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  driving  out  the 
gray  rats  and  giving  the  cats  added  employment  we  may 
assume.  The  cats  of  today  are  not  great  rat  catchers, 
while  the  damage  done  by  them  to  bird  life  is  a  serious 
matter. 

Man  has  brought  about  another  serious  problem  by  his 
attitude  toward  the  domestic  cat.  In  many  cases  he  per- 
mits it  to  become  wild  and  the  result  is  a  great  destruc- 
tion of  bird  life  estimated  for  states  like  Illinois  at  2,500,- 

5  KELLER,  C.  Derivation  of  European  Domestic  Animals  in  Re- 
port of  Smithsonian  Institute,  1912,  p.  483  ff. 


122         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

000 ;  and  New  York,  3,500,000  yearly.  There  are  a  large 
number  of  such  stray  cats  and  they  probably  are  more 
destructive  of  bird  life  than  any  native  wild  animals  in 
the  eastern  United  States.  They  also  form  the  great- 
est obstacle  to  the  rearing  of  game  birds  in  captivity. 
While  we  may  be  very  fond  of  puss  as  a  pet,  the  neg- 
lected cat  must  be  destroyed.  It  is  also  probable  that 
disease  is  not  infrequently  transmitted  by  them  to  their 
owners. 

Cattle  were  early  tamed.  They  certainly  were  kept  by 
the  Assyrians.  Keller  thinks  that  the  banteng,  which 
still  exists  wild,  is  the  original  of  the  Asiatic  and  of  the 
European  small,  short-horned  races;  but  some  hold  that 
the  aurochs,  "  the  Celtic  shorthorn,"  is  the  original  of  the 
short-homed  or  hornless  smaller  breeds.  It  is  probable 
that  in  Europe  the  urochs  (the  urus  of  Caesar  which  sur- 
vived till  the  twelfth  century)  or  a  closely  related  south- 
ernly  form  was  the  ancestor  of  the  long-horned  heavy 
cattle. 

The  ass  was  common  to  Asia  and  Egypt,  and  was  kept 
from  the  end  of  the  bronze  period.  The  first  domestica- 
tion seems  to  have  been  in  Egypt  by  the  Hamites.  It 
came  early  to  Europe  but  was  used  in  agriculture  only  on 
the  Mediterranean. 

Swine  were  kept  in  very  ancient  times,  both  in  Egypt 
and  Greece,  while  Chinese  records  go  back  to  the  fourth 
century  B.C.  The  east  Asiatic  banded  pig  species  was 
transferred  to  Europe  in  prehistoric  times  and  has  been 
largely  kept  in  south  Europe.  In  north  Germany  and 
Bavaria  there  are  strains  descended  from  the  narrow 
backed  native  pig. 

Tame  camels  were  known  in  Assyria  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  but  were  not  kept  in  Egypt.  The  camel  and 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       123 

dromedary  appear  to  have  a  common  ancestry  in  the 
Asiatic  stock.  Their  distribution,  says  Keller,  was  "  rela- 
tively late." 

Species  of  horses  were  once  common  in  Europe  and 
Asia  and  there  is  much  uncertainty  as  to  their  share  in 
present  breeds.  The  European  forest  horse  was  appar- 
ently the  ancestor  of  the  calm,  heavy  strains;  while  the 
Celtic  horse  is  represented  by  the  type  known  to  Ameri- 
cans as  the  Shetland  pony.  The  only  wild  horse  known 
to  us  today  (the  e.  przewalski  of  the  desert  of  Gobi,  once 
common  in  Europe)  became  the  founder  of  the  slender, 
nervous,  Arabian  type.  Possibly  there  is  another  com- 
mon ancestor  of  the  last,  but  this  is  uncertain.  In  any 
case,  the  horse  was  first  domesticated  in  Asia.  The  horse 
was  pictured  on  Egyptian  monuments  as  early  as  1575 
B.C.,  and  Egypt  was  not  its  habitat. 

The  bezoar  goat  of  west  Asia  was  early  tamed  and  came 
to  Europe  via  the  ^Egean  Islands  and  was  kept  by  the 
oldest  lake  dwellers.  The  wool  sheep  reached  Europe  in 
Mycenian  times  from  east  of  the  Black  Sea.  The  African 
maned  sheep  was  nearly  domesticated  in  the  Nile  Valley. 
These  Asiatic  and  African  forms,  Keller  thinks,  reached 
Europe  via  Crete  in  the  days  of  the  old  civilization  there, 
2000  or  3000  years  B.C. 

Man  uses  these  animals  for  various  purposes:  (1) 
companions,  (2)  food,  (3)  clothing,  (4)  transportation 
and  (5)  draft.  Some  animals  combine  many  of  these 
functions.  The  dog  is  a  valued  companion ;  is  sometimes 
eaten  or  used  to  hunt  other  animals ;  provides  clothing  and 
in  snowy  countries  is  valuable  for  traveling.  With  refer- 
ence to  these  uses  animals  vary  greatly.  By  mating  those 
showing  the  qualities  desired,  we  have  secured  different 
types  of  horses  from  the  heavy,  slow  Morgan  of  great 


124         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

strength  to  the  slender  high-strung  Kentucky  thorough- 
bred. We  have  cattle  producing  large  amounts  of  milk 
(Holstein)  or  a  small  amount  of  very  rich  milk  (Jersey) 
or  valued  chiefly  as  beef  (Shorthorns).  We  have  chick- 
ens like  the  Asiatics  (Brahmas),  heavy  birds,  rather  poor 
layers,  but  good  mothers,  gentle  and  rather  sluggish;  or 
the  European  breeds  (Leghorns,  Minorcas),  small  and 
so  active  that  no  fence  stops  them,  excellent  layers,  but 
poor  sitters  and  of  little  value  for  the  table.  By  various 
combinations  we  have  produced  the  American  breeds 
(Rocks,  Wyandottes,  Rhode  Island  Reds)  of  medium  size 
and  combining  in  large  measure  the  egg-producing  quali- 
ties of  the  Mediterranean  with  the  weight  and  disposition 
of  the  Asiatics.  Moreover,  we  can  have  these  birds  in 
several  colors:  barred,  white,  buff,  or  with  single,  pea  or 
rose  combs.  The  sheep  may  be  valued  for  mutton  or 
wool. 

Endless  experiments  are  being  made  in  crossing  ani- 
mals, and  there  is  every  reason  to  anticipate  greater  de- 
velopment in  the  future.  We  have  long  valued  the  mule, 
the  hybrid  resulting  from  mating  the  horse  and  ass. 
Mules  are,  however,  infertile.  It  may  be  that  by  crossing 
the  zebra  with  the  horse,  we  shall  find  a  new  type  that 
will  prove  fertile.  Such  crosses  are  now  known,  but  their 
worth  is  yet  to  be  determined.  Perchance  we  shall  get  a 
new  type  by  mating  the  bison  with  cattle  that  will  be 
worth  while.  Crosses  of  cattle  with  some  of  the  hump- 
backed cattle  of  Africa  in  the  southwest  seem  to  promise 
an  animal  immune  to  ticks,  which  will  be  of  great  im- 
portance. In  other  words,  we  are  now  producing  species, 
some  of  which  we  must  discard,  others  we  shall  keep. 

Of  the  vast  horde  of  insects,  there  are  two  that  have 
been  of  unusual  value  to  man.  The  mulberry  silk  worm, 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       125 

according  to  Chinese  records,  was  kept  as  early  as  2640 
B.C.,  when  the  Empress  Si-Ling  encouraged  the  planting 
of  mulberry  trees  and  the  culture  of  the  worm.  It  reached 
Japan  via  Korea  in  the  third  century  of  our  era.  Some- 
what later  it  was  taken  to  India,  thence  to  Persia.  Ar- 
istotle was  the  first  Western  writer  to  mention  it.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era  raw  silk  was  well  known 
in  Rome  and  was  worth  its  weight  in  gold.  Justinian 
sent  an  embassy  to  China  which  brought  some  worms  back 
in  a  hollow  bamboo  rod  A.D.  550.  These  formed  the  basis 
of  supply  for  the  Western  world  for  many  years.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  the  world  now  pro- 
duces some  42,000,000  pounds  of  raw  silk  yearly :  China 
with  13,000,000;  Japan,  11,000,000;  France,  1,276,000, 
being  the  chief  sources  of  supply.  To  the  sum  total  the 
United  States  as  yet  makes  no  contribution,  owing  largely 
to  the  high  cost  of  labor. 

The  keeping  of  bees  also  antedates  our  records.  They 
were  as  highly  prized  by  the  classical  people  as  they  are 
today  by  numerous  savage  tribes.  Several  species  are 
used,  one  of  the  commonest  being  the  dark-colored  Euro- 
pean bee.  The  Spaniards  appear  to  have  introduced  the 
bee  into  Mexico  in  early  days.  It  reached  Pensacola  by 
1753,  New  York  by  1797,  and  was  known  west  of  the 
Mississippi  by  1797.  The  last  century  has  witnessed  a 
great  change  in  the  methods  of  culture.  The  old  straw 
kep  has  yielded  place  to  the  modern  hive.  Most  im- 
portant is  the  use  of  some  comb  foundation.  Apiaries  of 
two  to  three  thousand  colonies  are  now  reported.  Over 
100,000,000  pounds  of  honey  are  used  yearly  in  the 
United  States. 

The  conquest  is  far  from  complete.  Birds  and  mam- 
mals to  some  extent  are  domesticated.  Beginnings  are 


126         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OP  SOCIETY 

being  made  in  the  cultivation  of  the  forms  of  life  in  water. 
We  now  care  for  the  oyster  beds.  Fishes  are  hatched 
by  the  millions  at  fish  hatcheries  and  suitable  waters  are 
stocked  therefrom.  This  entire  industry  is  just  at  its  be- 
ginning, and  has  enormous  possibilities. 

How  can  any  one  overestimate  the  benefit  of  domestic 
animals  to  man  2  By  their  milk  or  meat  he  has  been  fed. 
By  their  skins  and  fur  he  has  been  clad.  Their  speed  has 
rescued  him  from  danger;  their  strength  has  plowed  his 
fields  and  pulled  his  implements.  With  their  ligaments 
he  bound  his  primitive  weapons  together.  From  their 
bones  he  made  his  tools  and  handles  and  began  perchance 
his  first  attempts  at  making  images.  From  them  he 
learned  many  of  nature's  lessons.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  without  domestic  animals  civilization  is  hardly 
possible.  Some  groups  like  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
have  attained  high  culture  to  be  sure,  with  little  use  of 
animals,  but  at  what  cost?  The  great  poverty  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  is  the  answer.  The  absence  of  suit- 
able animals  alone  goes  far  towards  explaining  the  rela- 
tive backwardness  of  the  Indian  as  compared  to  the 
European. 

Man  has  been  slow  to  realize  that  it  does  not  always 
pay  him  to  keep  a  cow  merely  because  it  gave  milk.  In 
part  this  has  been  due  to  ignorance,  in  part  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  discriminating,  in  part  to  the  added  expense  in- 
volved in  more  careful  methods.  We  may  see  just  what 
this  means  by  glancing  at  the  dairy  cattle  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  estimated  that  some  21,000,000  cows  are 
kept  which  require  for  maintenance  an  area  about  equal 
to  the  state  of  Illinois.  Estimating  that  a  dairy  cow 
which  does  not  yield  yearly  4,000  pounds  of  milk  contain- 
ing 160  pounds  of  butter-fat  is  kept  at  a  loss  we  may 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       127 

divide  the  cattle  into  three  groups  each  containing 
7,000,000  cows.  The  actual  results  are  as  follows: 

Uncle  Sam's  Three  Herds  of  Dairy  Cattle 

Pounds  Butter  Annual  Annual 

milk  yearly  fat  profit  loss 

1st    7,000,000    3654  134  ....  $7.25 

2nd  7,000,000    5000  198  $7.85  

3rd   7,000,000    6765  278  26.82 

The  first  herd  is  kept  at  an  actual  loss  of  $7.25  per  cow, 
while  the  first  and  the  second  herd  combined  yield  a  profit 
of  only  thirty  cents  each  and  the  cows  of  the  second  herd 
must  be  milked  82  times  for  each  dollar  of  profit.  The 
third  herd  is  really  the  only  profitable  one.  When  such 
facts  are  fully  realized  we  may  anticipate  marked  im- 
provement in  the  quality  of  cows  kept.6 

In  at  least  one  other  way  hitherto  unmentioned  are 
animals  helping  man.  This  is  with  reference  to  germ 
diseases.  The  beginning  may  be  dated  in  the  last  decade 
of  the  eighteenth  century  when  Edward  Jenner,  noting 
the  pure  complexions  and  smooth  skins  of  the  milkmaids 
wondered  if  the  chance  infection  with  cowpox  prevented 
their  taking  the  dreaded  smallpox.  Experiment  proved 
this  to  be  true.  Now  with  the  elimination  of  cruelty  and 
needless  suffering  investigators  the  world  over  are  trying 
experiments  upon  lowly  forms  of  life  to  see  if  in  some 
way  control  may  be  gained  of  the  germ  diseases  which 
cause  so  much  suffering  and  death  among  mankind.  The 
results  have  been  wonderful. 

In  the  natural  world  there  is  no  such  thing  as  natural 
death  in  the  sense  of  the  long  sleep  coming  after  a  long 
life  with  the  gradual  weakening  of  the  vital  powers. 
Death  is  the  result  of  accident  or  assault  by  some  foe  in 

•  FBASEB,  W.  J.    Three  Herds  Dairy  Cattle,  Rev.  of  Rev.,  March, 
1915. 


128         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

numbers  large  or  small.  Now  that  the  large  animals  are 
overcome  man  is  tempted  to  boast  of  his  conquest,  forget- 
ting that  today  his  dangerous  enemies  are  the  minute 
forms  of  life.  The  discovery  of  the  causes  of  zymotic 
diseases  and  the  various  methods  of  fighting  them  makes 
the  contest  hopeful. 

Soon  after  the  microscope  came  into  use  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  Leeuwenhoek  (1687)  discovered  the  minute 
one-celled  plants  known  as  bacteria.  In  1762  Plenciz, 
a  physician  of  Vienna,  suggested  that  diseases  were  due 
to  such  animalcules,  each  disease  having  its  own.  This 
theory  had  some  vogue;  but  no  one  seems  to  have  tested 
the  suggestion  so  the  idea  quickly  died  out.  In  1837  an 
Italian,  Bassi,  discovered  that  the  disease  killing  the  silk 
worms  was  apparently  caused  by  "  minute  glittering  par- 
ticles "  of  matter  that  passed  from  the  sick  to  the  healthy. 
About  1860  Pasteur  found  germs  in  the  air.  In  1849 
Pollender  saw  rod-like  forms  in  the  blood  of  cattle  afflicted 
with  anthrax,  but  it,  was  not  till  1863  that  Davaine  proved 
that  these  were  the  cause  of  the  disease.  In  1880  Eberth 
identified  the  bacillus  producing  typhoid.  In  1881  Koch 
found  the  bacillus  of  tuberculosis  and  in  1883  that  of 
Asiatic  cholera.  The  next  fifteen  years  brought  the  dis- 
covery of  the  causes  of  many  of  the  common  diseases. 
The  last  fifteen  have  been  less  productive,  with  some 
notable  exceptions,  such  as  the  solution  by  Noguchi  of  the 
cause  of  rabies  in  1913.  It  is  thought  that  the  relatively 
few  recent  discoveries  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
undiscovered  germs  may  be  too  small  to  be  found  with 
present  instruments  and  methods.  It  is  claimed  that  we 
know  some  1500  varieties  of  germs,  of  which  some  50  are 
causes  of  disease. 

At  first  these  discoveries  were  received  with  extreme 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       129 

credulity  even  by  medical  men.  But  the  tests  self-imposed 
by  Koch  left  little  doubt.  He  stated  that  before  we  could 
be  sure  that  a  given  germ  was  responsible  for  the  disease 
it  was  necessary,  (1)  to  find  it  present  in  large  numbers 
in  every  case,  (2)  to  take  it  and  make  a  pure  culture  in 
some  substance,  (3)  to  inoculate  a  subject  with  the  pure 
culture  and  produce  the  disease,  and  (4)  to  find  again 
large  numbers  of  the  germs  in  the  inoculated  subject.  To- 
day it  is  generally  believed  that  all  the  diseases  we  call 
contagious  or  infectious  are  caused  by  minute  organisms. 
Other  forms  of  disease,  affecting  the  individual  only,  re- 
sult from  shock  or  injury,  from  the  presence  of  some 
chemical  due  to  defective  metabolism,  or  from  some  para- 
site like  the  tapeworm. 

Inasmuch  as  these  zymotic  (germ)  diseases  are  pro- 
duced by  plants  and  animals,  it  is  possible  to  study  them, 
learn  their  life  histories  and  thus  take  measures  to  pre- 
vent their  spread  or  to  fight  them  in  the  body  of  the  sick 
animal  or  person.  With  few  exceptions  there  are  no  spe- 
cific cures  for  these  diseases,  that  is  we  do  not  have  sub- 
stances which  we  can  use  in  such  fashion  as  to  kill  the 
germs  causing  distress  to  the  human  body  without  killing 
the  person.  To  this  statement  there  are  today  a  few  ex- 
ceptions, true  in  most  cases  at  least :  malaria  can  be  cured 
by  quinin ;  iron  overcomes  certain  types  of  anemia ;  while 
syphilis  yields  to  arsenic  and  pyorrhea  to  ipecac.  It  may 
be  that  future  research  will  reveal  other  such  specifics. 

Knowing  the  nature  of  the  causes  gives  man  other  ave- 
nues of  attack.  Inasmuch  as  given  plants  use  certain 
elements  as  food,  it  must  follow  that  those  elements  in  a 
given  person  may  be  exhausted.  If  then  some  similar 
organism  can  be  found  whose  after-effects  are  mild,  the 
soil  may  be  rendered  unfertile  for  the  dreaded  disease, 


130         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

which  cannot  develop,  thereafter  even  if  it  finds  entrance. 
Or,  it  may  be  that  the  poisons  produced  by  such  related 
forms  destroy  the  later  comers.  We  have  not  yet  discov- 
ered the  germ  of  smallpox,  but  the  milder  cowpox  gives 
almost  complete  immunity.  In  other  cases  we  use  the 
self -created  poisons  above  mentioned  (called  antitoxins) 
and,  by  injecting  these  into  the  system,  as  in  diphtheria, 
destroy  the  disease. 

To  tell  the  story  of  man's  failure  and  success  in  the 
battle  with  disease  would  require  many  volumes.  We 
can  only  give  a  few  illustrations  here  and  indicate  future 
possibilities.  In  1867  Lister,  seeking  to  cut  down  the 
terrific  death  rate  following  surgical  operations,  used  car- 
bolic acid  with  surprising  results,  and  thus  started  mod- 
ern antiseptic  methods.  Anesthetics  had  already  been 
introduced.  Ether  was  first  used  by  an  American  physi- 
cian, Dr.  C.  W.  Long,  in  1842.  It  came  into  general  use 
in  1846  and  in  1847  chloroform  was  employed.  Thanks 
to  these  and  present  methods  of  operating,  openings  of  the 
head,  chest  and  abdomen  which  were  considered  almost 
necessarily  fatal  in  1870,  and  only  done  when  death  was 
otherwise  certain,  are  now  practically  without  danger. 

The  mortality  of  ovariotomy  formerly  69  per  cent  is 
now  2  per  cent.  The  mortality  of  compound  fractures 
formerly  60  per  cent  is  now  3  per  cent.  The  mortality 
of  major  amputations  formerly  50-63  per  cent  is  now 
10-20  per  cent. 

For  many  years  the  death  rate  of  women  at  the  time  of 
childbirth  was  most  puzzling.  "  Le  Fort,  in  his  railing 
accusation  against  the  lying-in  hospitals  of  France,  which 
appeared  in  1866,  calculated  that  30,394  deaths  from  puer- 
peral fever  had  occurred  in  the  888,312  women  delivered 
in  the  hospitals  of  Paris  up  to  the  year  1864  —  an  inci- 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       131 

dence  of  3.5  per  cent,  or  one  death  to  every  27.2  labors. 
Moreover,  he  stated  that  from  1860  to  1864,  inclusive,  the 
mortality  in  the  Maternite  of  Paris  was  12.4  per  cent, 
which  in  December,  1864,  rose  to  the  colossal  height  of 
57  per  cent,  while  in  the  Clinique  it  averaged  14.7  per 
cent  between  the  years  1833  and  1864,  and  on  several 
occasions  rose  above  20  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  mortality  outside  of  the  hospitals  was  much  less,  as 
only  one  woman  perished  out  of  every  212,  which  indi- 
cated that  seven-eighths  of  the  hospital  deaths  were  due 
to  conditions  prevailing  in  them."  7  In  Germany  3.4  per 
cent  of  those  in  hospitals  died,  but  only  .6  of  those  de- 
livered at  home.  England  showed  similar  conditions. 
In  the  United  States  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  had  a 
record  of  5.6  per  cent  from  1803  to  1833.  In  an  epi- 
demic at  Bellevue  Hospital  in  1872  the  death  rate  rose 
to  18  per  cent.  Today,  thanks  to  antiseptic  methods,  the 
death  rate  in  good  hospitals  is  less  than  .25  per  cent. 
Investigation  revealed  the  fact  that  this  death  rate  in  the 
hospitals  was  due  to  germ  infection.  Once  the  fact  was 
discovered,  efforts  were  made  to  meet  the  situation  with 
excellent  results.  Thus  in  1909  the  New  York  Lying-in 
Hospital  lost  only  .34  per  cent  out  of  60,000  obstetrical 
cases,  or  one  out  of  1250.8 

Now  that  we  understand  the  nature  of  diseases  some- 
what, our  problem  becomes  one  of  prevention  rather  than 
cure.  That  vast  unreasoning  fear  of  disease  which  man 
had,  and  still  has  in  part,  largely  disappears  as  we  come 
to  know  the  condition  under  which  disease  is  dangerous. 
We  know  just  how  certain  diseases  are  spread,  hence  we 
can  safeguard  ourselves. 

7  WILLIAMS,  J.  W.     Obstetrics  and  Animal  Experimentation,  p.  5. 
s  KEEN,  W.  W.    Animal  Experimentation,  p.  256. 


132         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  triumph  of  men  in  this 
field  is  the  conquest  of  smallpox.  Two  hundred  years  ago 
about  one-tenth  of  our  ancestors  died  of  this  disease  and 
"  a  pox  upon  you  "  was  one  of  the  common  curses.  It  is 
estimated  that  from  80  per  cent  to  90  per  cent  of  the 
population  had  smallpox  at  some  time  during  their  lives 
and  few  faces  even  among  the  royal  families  were  not 
pock-marked.  In  1722  the  town  of  Ware,  England,  con- 
tained 2,515  inhabitants  of  whom  1,601  had  previously 
had  smallpox.  An  epidemic  came  and  only  302  were 
left  untouched.  In  Iceland  in  1707  some  18,000  or  60 
per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  30,000  died  in  one 
epidemic.  In  1752  Boston,  England,  had  a  population 
of  15,684  of  whom  5,998  had  survived  an  earlier  attack. 
An  epidemic  came  and  some  5,545  contracted  the  disease, 
2,124  were  inoculated  with  it  following  a  custom  which 
had  been  developed  in  Turkey  in  the  effort  to  overcome 
the  disease.  Deducting  those  who  fled,  only  174  remained 
who  had  not  been  sick.  In  Montreal  in  nine  months  of 
1885  some  3,164  died  in  one  epidemic.  With  the  nine- 
teenth century  came  vaccination  with  the  virus  of  "  cow- 
pox  "  and  the  steady  disappearance  of  the  disease.  The 
facts  are  clearly  shown  by  the  condition  in  the  different 
countries.  In  the  years  1893  to  1897  smallpox  caused 
the  deaths  of  some  275,502  in  Russia,  while  in  Germany 
only  274,  thanks  to  a  good  system  of  compulsory  vaccina- 
tion. During  this  period  Spain  lost  from  smallpox  563 
per  million ;  Russia,  463 ;  but  Germany  only  1,  and  Ger- 
many has  had  no  epidemic  since  1874.  At  the  time  the 
Americans  entered  the  Philippines  it  is  stated  that  there 
were  in  five  provinces  some  6,000  deaths  yearly  from 
smallpox.  In  1905  and  1906  some  3,000,000  vaccina- 
tions were  made  and  in  the  following  year  there  were  no 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       133 

deaths  from  the  disease.  Yet  today  misguided  individuals 
would  persuade  us  that  vaccination  is  useless  and  danger- 
ous. Dr.  Schamberg  reports  that  in  6,739,902  cases  there 
were  only  476  deaths  which  by  any  stretch  of  imagination 
could  have  been  charged  to  the  vaccination,  a  rate  of  .007 
per  cent.  In  the  3,500,000  vaccinations  in  the  Philippines 
there  were  no  deaths  and  no  serious  infections.  From 
1901  to  1905  some  500  persons  in  Philadelphia  died  of 
smallpox,  but  not  one  of  these  had  been  successfully  vac- 
cinated within  ten  years.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  then 
that  smallpox  is  vanquished  if  man  so  chooses.  The  finan- 
cial gain  can  be  seen  from  the  estimate  that  the  epidemic 
of  1891-1892  cost  Philadelphia  alone  over  $21,000,000, 
while  the  total  cost  of  vaccinating,  disinfecting  stations, 
public  instruction,  etc.,  at  the  same  time  was  some 
$750,000.9 

In  the  United  States  we  are  probably  safe  in  saying 
that  the  danger  from  those  great  scourges  Asiatic  cholera 
and  bubonic  plague  is  very  small  in  view  of  our  present 
knowledge.  "  Epidemics  of  both  have  occurred  elsewhere 
in  which  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  persons  were 
attacked  and  nearly  half  as  many  were  killed.  In  the  sin- 
gle year  1885  cholera  cost  Japan  a  hundred  thousand  lives 
and  inflicted  a  loss  that  could  not  have  been  less  than 
two  hundred  million  dollars.  In  the  city  of  Hamburg 
the  cholera  epidemic  of  1892  destroyed  eight  thousand 
lives  and  cost  that  commercial  city  twenty-five  million 
dollars  or  mpre."  10  In  the  fourteenth  century  the  bu- 
bonic plague  under  the  title  "  Black  Death  "  swept  over 
Europe  destroying  some  25,000,000  people,  or  one-fourth 

o  SCHAMBERG,  J.  F.  Vaccination  in  Relation  to  Animal  Experi- 
mentation, 1911. 

10  MAYO,  E.     The  Cost  of  Disease,  The  Outlook,  May  13,  1911. 


134         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

of  the  total  population.  During  three  months  in  1911 
some  50,000  died  of  it  in  Manchuria.  So  far  as  is  known 
every  person  stricken  with  the  disease  died.  In  the  four 
days  ending  December  27,  1912,  some  1,714  deaths  oc- 
curred at  Mecca  from  cholera  with  over  10,000  pilgrims 
present  in  the  City.11  The  battle  with  this  enemy,  which 
increases  so  fast  that  at  the  end  of  twelve  hours  one  germ 
is  reported  to  have  become  17,000,000,  and  is  so  small 
that  it  takes  625,000,000  to  cover  a  square  inch,  is  not 
over  but  the  outlook  is  hopeful.  Thanks  to  an  American, 
Dr.  Richard  P.  Strong,  we  now  know  that  both  forms  of 
the  disease  are  caused  by  a  bacillus  which  lives  in  a  small 
fur-bearing  animal  of  Manchuria,  the  tarbagan.  If 
transferred  to  a  person  by  a  flea  or  by  chance  inoculated 
in  some  other  way,  it  becomes  the  dreaded  bubonic  plague. 
If  however  it  reaches  the  lungs  it  is  the  pneumonic 
plague.12  By  destroying  the  animals  such  as  rats  and 
squirrels  from  which  it  might  be  passed  to  man,  the  med- 
ical authorities  were  able  to  stop  the  epidemic  of  1909  at 
San  Francisco.  Here  then  is  a  case  when  knowledge 
gives  only  partial  control,  but  it  is  unlikely  that  Europe 
or  America  will  ever  endure  again  the  plagues  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  is  now  possible  to  secure  some  immunity 
against  bubonic  plague.  "  A  large  series  of  numbered 
prisoners  were  confined  in  a  jail  where  plague  prevailed. 
Those  who  bore  even  numbers  were  inoculated,  while  those 
having  odd  numbers  were  not  inoculated.  Among  the  un- 
inoculated  there  occurred  ten  cases  of  plague,  six  of  which 
were  fatal;  while  among  the  inoculated  there  were  three 
cases,  all  very  mild  and  all  of  the  patients  recovered."  13 

11  New  York  Independent,  Jan.  9,  1913. 

12  Fighting  the  Black  Death,  World's  Work,  Dec.,  1913,  p.  219. 
is  McCoT,     G.     W.     Relation     of     Animal     Experimentation     to 

Plague,  p.  9. 


THE  CONTEOL  OP  NATURE       135 

Recently,  45  per  cent  of  those  uninoculated  died,  and  but 
17  per  cent  of  the  inoculated. 

One  of  the  greatest  discoveries  of  the  ages  was  made  in 
1900  by  Dr.  Walter  Reid  of  the  United  States  Army 
when  he  found  that  yellow  fever  was  given  to  man  through 
the  bite  of  the  female  stegomyia  mosquito.  We  now  know 
that  this  mosquito  must  bite  a  fever-stricken  patient  within 
the  first  three  days  of  his  illness.  Then  for  some  twelve 
days  the  germ  incubates  in  the  body  of  the  mosquito  and 
may  thereafter  be  transmitted  to  man.  This  germ  chances 
to  be  animal.  At  once  the  yellow  fever  patient  ceased 
to  be  considered  a  direct  source  of  danger.  He  must  be 
so  screened  that  no  mosquito  could  get  at  him,  for  in  no 
other  fashion  can  he  pass  on  the  disease. 

Yellow  fever  kills  about  25  per  cent  of  those  attacked. 
Its  native  home  appears  to  have  been  the  shores  of  the 
Caribbean  and  the  southern  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
After  the  appearance  of -the  Europeans  the  sailing  ships 
carried  it  to  Havana  where  it  became  endemic  after  1762. 
It  was  taken  to  Africa  by  1494  and  is  there  endemic  on 
the  West  Coast.  It  is  now  endemic  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere as  far  south  as  Rio  Janeiro  and  as  far  west  as  Vera 
Cruz. 

During  the  nineteenth  century  the  deaths  from  yellow 
fever  at  Havana  had  frequently  run  as  high  as  1500  per 
annum,  or  at  the  rate  of  428  per  100,000;  but  they 
stopped  abruptly  and  absolutely  in  1902.  The  record 
from  18 90  follows: 


1890  308  1896  1282 

1891  356  1897  858 

1892  357  1898  136 

1893  494  1899  103 

1894  382  1900  310 

1895  .         .  553  1901  18 


136 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


The  marked  drop  in  1901  shows  the  significance  of  Dr. 
Reid's  discovery.  The  following  diagram  is  also  sug- 
gestive : 


*»' 


CX.  •" 

s     s 


00 


80 


60 


40 


20 


00.2 


80.3, 


62.1 


57.7 


60.7 


26 


61001  0000 

MORTALITY  YELLOW  FEVER  —  HAVANA 

Monthly  Average  for  20  Years  Preceding  1900.    Lower  Dotted  Line 
Shows  1901  Mortality 

In  1793  in  Philadelphia  4,041  out  of  a  population  of 
40,144  died  of  yellow  fever  between  August  and  the  mid- 
dle of  September.  When  the  epidemic  of  1878  struck  the 
southern  cities  people  fled  by  untold  thousands,  and  the 
cost  is  estimated  at  $100,000,000  not  to  mention  the  loss 
by  death.  In  1905  this  would  have  been  repeated  had  it 
not  been  for  the  discovery  of  Dr.  Reid  and  his  associates. 
General  Leonard  Wood  is  quoted  as  saying  that  this  dis- 
covery saves  the  world  each  year  more  than  the  entire  cost 
of  the  Cuban  war. 

In  1880  Laveran  found  the  microbe  which  causes  ma- 
laria, and  in  1898  an  English  physician,  Dr.  Ronald  Read, 
discovered  that  this  organism  must  pass  part  of  its  life  in 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       137 

a  female  mosquito  of  the  Anopheles  species  and  by  it  be 
transferred  to  man.  It  is  claimed  that  in  parts  of  the 
United  States  today  malaria  reduces  the  working  strength 
of  the  people  50  per  cent.  Sir  Eonald  Ross  of  the  Liver- 
pool School  of  Tropical  Medicine  is  quoted  as  saying  that 
one-half  of  the  people  of  Greece  have  suffered  genuine  in- 
jury from  malaria,  while  Dr.  W.  H.  S.  Jones  feels  that 
malaria  in  no  small  way  caused  the  downfall  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome.  Continued  warfare  on  the  mosquito 
therefore  will  give  us  the  victory  over  both  malaria  and 
yellow  fever. 

The  work  done  at  Havana  and  at  Panama  is  a  striking 
proof  of  man's  growing  control  and  of  its  value.  The 
Panama  Canal  was  made  possible  by  the  growth  of  our 
knowledge  of  disease.  No  one  can  speak  with  greater 
authority  on  this  than  Dr.  Gorgas.  Before  1901  "  Ha- 
vana had  yearly  from  300  to  500  deaths  from  malaria, 
rising  as  high  in  1898  as  1,900  deaths.  Since  1901  there 
has  been  a  steady  decrease  in  the  malarial  death  rate  un- 
til the  last  year  of  the  table,  1912,  when  there  were 
only  four  deaths."  "  By  1912  malaria  had  become  as 
completely  extinguished  in  Havana  as  had  yellow  fever 
in  1902."  14  In  1906,  at  Panama  821  out  of  every  1000 
were  admitted  to  hospitals  for  malaria,  in  1913  only  76 
per  1000.  Of  the  general  situation  at  Panama  he  says : 15 
"  We  had  an  average  of  900  men  sick  every  day.  For 
-the  year  this  would  give  us  328,900  days  of  sickness,  and 
for  the  ten  years  3,285,000  days  of  sickness.  If  our  rate 
had  been  300  per  1000,  a  very  moderate  figure  compared 
with  what  it  was  under  the  French,  we  should  have  had 
11,700  sick  every  day.  For  the  year  this  would  have 

I*GOBGAS,  W.  C.     Sanitation  in  Panama,  pp.  73,  74. 
is  Ibid.,  p.  275. 


138         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

given  us  4,270,500  days  of  sickness  and  for  the  ten  years 
42,705,000,  a  saving  of  39,420,000  days  of  sickness  dur- 
ing this  period."  This  is  equal  to  a  saving  in  cash  of 
$329,420,000. 

"  During  the  ten  years  of  construction,  we  lost  by  death 
seventeen  out  of  every  thousand  of  our  employees  each 
year.  That  is,  from  the  whole  force  of  39,000  men,  663 
died  each  year,  and  for  the  whole  construction  period  we 
lost  6,630  men.  If  sanitary  conditions  had  remained  as 
they  had  been  previous  to  1904,  and  we  had  lost  as  did 
the  French,  two  hundred  of  our  employees  out  of  each  one 
thousand  on  the  work,  we  should  have  lost  7,800  men  each 
year,  and  78,000  during  the  whole  construction  period."  16 
This  means  that  71,370  lives  were  saved. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  conflict  of  medical  history  is  that 
now  waged  against  tuberculosis,  which  today  causes  over 
one-tenth  of  the  deaths  in  our  land.  This  disease  is  im- 
portant not  merely  because  of  the  death  rate  (being  re- 
sponsible for  some  130,000  lives  annually)  but  because 
of  its  long,  lingering  character,  imposing  a  terrific  burden 
upon  families  and  communities  alike,  and  costing  some 
$200,000,000  annually  in  our  own  country.  Cures  for 
tuberculosis  are  today  unknown,  yet  the  newer  knowledge 
has  enabled  us  to  cut  down  the  death  rate  perhaps  50  per 
cent  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  Once  regarded  as  fatal 
to  every  sufferer,  we  now  know  that  if  proper  care  is  pro- 
vided in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  disease,  recovery  may  be 
expected  in  perhaps  the  majority  of  the  cases.  No  less 
an  authority  than  Dr.  Earl  Mayo  has  declared :  "  If  the 
members  of  the  medical  profession  were  given  a  free  hand 
to  deal  with  this  disease,  backed  by  adequate  provision 
for  the  care  of  existing  cases,  tuberculosis  could  be  prac- 

16  GOBGAS,  W.   C.      O.   C.,   p.   280. 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       139 

tically  stamped  out  within  a  single  generation."  17  The 
fight  against  this  disease  involves  its  extermination  among 
cattle  likewise,  for  these  valuable  animals  are  unfortunately 
attacked  by  it.  Probably  the  best  organized  social  agency 
of  the  day  is  the  anti-tuberculosis  movement. 

For  a  long  time  typhus  and  typhoid  —  both  filth  dis- 
eases—  were  not  distinguished.  The  role  of  the  former 
is  now  usually  insignificant,  but  recent  frightful  out- 
breaks in  Servia  and  Armenia  make  us  realize  that  it  is 
only  suppressed  by  maintaining  high  standards. 

Deaths  per  WjOOO  from  Typhus  and  Typhoid 

1838  England    12.28 

1858  England    9.18 

1878  England     3.06  typhoid     .36  typhus 

1892  England    1.37                    .03  typhus 

Typhoid  fever,  the  cause  of  the  death  of  30,000  Ameri- 
cans a  year,  did  not  play  an  important  role  till  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  many  epidemics  be- 
came noticeable.  It  is  spread  only  through  the  waste 
products  of  the  body  and  carried  by  milk,  water,  or  flies 
to  other  persons.  If  these  waste  products  are  sterilized 
there  can  be  no  spread.  Hence  the  bill  of  $212,000,000 
annually  paid  by  Americans  is  wholly  unnecessary  if  pres- 
ent knowledge  is  utilized.  Europe  is  ahead  of  us. 
Thirty-three  of  its  largest  cities  with  a  population  of 
31,500,000  have  recently  averaged  only  6.5  deaths  to 
every  100,000,  while  twenty-five  of  our  cities  with  20,- 
000,000  inhabitants  are  averaging  25  per  100,000.  Aside 
from  this  attack  on  the  disease,  we  are  now  reducing  its 
ravages  by  inoculation.  In  1898  in  the  Seventh  Army 
Corps  at  Jacksonville,  Florida  (some  10,759  men),  there 
were  4,422  cases  of  typhoid  with  248  deaths.  In  the  1912 

IT  MAYO,  E.     In  The  Outlook,  Dec.  7,  1912. 


140         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

maneuvers  at  San  Antonio,  Texas,  among  12,801  soldiers 
there  was  only  one  case,  which  however  resulted  fatally. 

"  During  the  Spanish  War  there  were  20,738  cases  of 
typhoid  and  1480  deaths;  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  entire 
army  had  the  disease.  It  caused  over  86  per  cent  of  the 
entire  mortality  of  that  war.  In  some  regiments  as  many 
as  400  men  out  of  1300  fell  ill  with  it.  ...  From  June 
1908  to  1909,  when  the  vaccination  was  purely  voluntary 
and  the  army  was  not  in  the  field,  proportionately  sixteen 
times  as  many  unvaccinated  soldiers  fell  ill  with  the  disease 
as  compared  with  the  vaccinated."  18  In  the  British  gar- 
rison in  India  formerly  from  300  to  600  died  yearly  of 
typhoid  before  vaccination  was  introduced.  In  1913  less 
than  20  died.  Among  8,754  inoculated  British  soldiers 
in  India  there  were  recently  16  cases  with  no  deaths,  while 
7,376  uninoculated  showed  68  cases  with  14  deaths.  The 
French  have  produced  similar  results  in  Africa.  Con- 
trast the  Franco-Prussian  War,  when  typhoid  was  re- 
sponsible for  nearly  60  per  cent  of  the  mortality  among 
the  German  troops,  with  the  Russo-Japanese  War  when  for 
the  first  time  in  history  disease  played  second  role  to  death 
in  battle. 

Diphtheria  still  kills  about  as  many  as  typhoid,  and 
these  chiefly  young  children,  but  its  share  in  the  death 
rate  has  been  greatly  decreased  since  the  discovery  of  anti- 
toxin in  1892  by  Behring  and  can  be  still  further  reduced 
when  better  provision  is  made  for  prompt  attention.  The 
death  rate  from  diphtheria  in  New  York  City  is  now 
about  one-fifth  of  the  average  rate  before  the  introduction 
of  antitoxin.  In  19  of  the  large  cities  of  Europe  and 
North  America  with  a  combined  population  of  nearly 
23,000,000,  the  deaths  from  diphtheria  were  66.9  per 

is  KEEN,  W.  W.    o.  c.,  p.  259. 


100,000  in  1890;  32.7  in  1900,  and  19  in  1905.  The 
mortality  of  7.9  per  10,000  of  population  in  1894  was 
reduced  to  1.9  by  1905. 

With  reference  to  other  diseases,  the  present  prospect 
is  less  encouraging.  Pneumonia  contests  with  tubercu- 
losis for  a  place  at  the  head  of  the  causes  of  death,  while 
cancer  stands  seventh  and  is  apparently  increasing. 
While  we  are  making  little  headway  against  pneumonia, 


1 


§ 

OS 


74500 
74000 
73500 
73000 
72500 
72000 
77500 
77000 
70500 
70000 
0500 
0000 
0500 
8000 
7500 
7000 

esoo 

6000 
5500 
5000 

/ 

1  

^ 

'  . 

~-~-^ 

_—  — 

•^^ 

/ 

Tub\ 

rcalo 

sis 

^* 

/ 

^x-*" 

^^ 

^^ 

^^-~~ 

—--' 

^ 

Can 

cer 

^ 

^*_ 

DEATHS  FROM  TUBERCULOSIS  AND  CANCER 

the  fact  that  it  attacks  people  of  advanced  years  and  the 
intemperate  makes  it  perhaps  less  significant.  It  results 
fatally  in  from  20  per  cent  to  30  per  cent  of  the  cases. 
The  germs  are  probably  present  in  20  per  cent  of  healthy 
normal  people  all  the  time.  Cancer  is  giving  us  growing 
concern.  The  use  of  the  knife  in  the  early  stages  plus 
perhaps  treatment  by  radium,  offers  the  only  hope  at 


142         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

present  The  cause  of  cancer  is  unknown,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally believed  to  be  a  germ  of  some  sort  The  recent 
hopes  based  on  the  announcement  from  some  of  the  best 
men  in  America  and  France  that  cancer  is  yielding  to 
radium  treatment  are  now  being  surrendered.  Whether 
this  proves  true  or  not  it  is  believed  that  sooner  or  later 
its  secret  will  be  revealed.  It  is  claimed  that  each  year 
in  Germany  more  women  die  of  cancer  than  there  were 
men  killed  in  the  whole  Franco-Prussian  War.  The  chart 
on  page  141  shows  that  we  are  controlling  tuberculosis 
while  cancer  is  steadily  increasing.  The  figures  are  from 
New  York. 

A  world-wide  war  has  been  declared  on  disease.  The 
dreaded  sleeping  sickness  which  has  depopulated  Uganda, 
the  anemia  which  makes  wrecks  of  the  natives  of  Porto 
Rico  and  the  tropics,  the  hookworm  disease  which  came 
to  America  with  the  slaves  from  Africa  are  better  under- 
stood and  are  being  conquered.  The  movement  inaugu- 
rated by  the  chemist  Pasteur  has  revolutionized  the  func- 
tion of  medicine  and  the  doctor  with  his  "  pill  for  every 
ill "  yields  place  to  the  research  student  who  strikes  at 
the  source  of  disease. 

This  new  warfare  uses  several  methods  as  has  been  in- 
dicated. In  a  few  cases  long  experiment  reveals  some 
agent  or  compound  like  salvarsan  (arsenic)  discovered  by 
Ehrlich  and  first  known  as  No.  606  (that  number  repre- 
senting its  order  in  his  experiments),  which  in  most  cases 
kills  the  germ  of  syphilis.  In  the  second  case  we  use 
modified  forms  of  the  disease  or  its  own  deadly  by-products 
to  bring  about  its  prevention  or  destruction,  and  finally 
we  endeavor  to  prevent  infection  by  destroying  the  germs 
just  as  we  have  destroyed  the  great  auk. 

Beside  the  doctor  to  whom  we  go  voluntarily  in  sick- 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATUEE       143 

ness  has  arisen  the  medical  officer  of  the  state  backed  by 
law  to  safeguard  public  health.  State  commissioners  of 
health  or  boards  of  health  supervise  matters  within  the 
state.  Since  1893  all  maritime  and  interstate  quarantine 
powers  of  the  national  government  are  controlled  by  the 
Public  Health  Service  under  a  supervising  surgeon  gen- 
eral. This  service  establishes  quarantine  regulations  for 
all  ports  of  the  United  States  and  has  gradually  taken  over 
control  of  the  ports,  maintaining  now  some  fifty  stations 
in  addition  to  those  on  the  Islands  and  in  Alaska.  So 
recent  has  this  development  been  that  the  ports  of  Boston, 
Baltimore  and  New  York  are  still  under  local  control. 
So  little  anticipated  were  these  functions  that  even  today 
if  a  serious  epidemic  breaks  out  in  some  state  the  national 
authorities  can  only  interfere  if  there  is  danger  that  in- 
terstate commerce  in  goods  will  be  affected. 

Meantime  great  research  laboratories  have  grown  up  in 
connection  with  city  or  state  departments,  in  medical 
schools,  or  special  institutions  like  the  Rockefeller  Insti- 
tute for  Medical  Research  in  New  York  City,  or  the 
Pasteur  Institute  at  Paris.  Chairs  of  tropical  medicine 
are  found  in  our  schools  and  special  public  health  courses 
appear  in  the  curricula.  The  doctor  has  joined  forces 
with  the  social  worker  and  the  demand  is  that  preventable 
disease  shall  be  no  more.  In  no  period  of  earth's  history 
has  so  much  been  accomplished  as  in  the  last  fifty  years. 
Small  wonder  that  man  is  encouraged  to  hope  that  a  real 
and  effective  control  of  these  natural  enemies  will  soon  be 
in  his  hands. 

In  many  ways  quite  as  important  as  the  control  of 
diseases  affecting  man  is  that  of  those  destroying  his  plants 
and  animals,  for  they  too  are  subject  to  attack.  Tuber- 
culosis has  already  been  mentioned  in  this  connection, 


144         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

and  from  one-third  to  one-half  of  our  cattle  are  said  to  be 
infected.  Borna's  disease,  a  form  of  meningitis,  destroyed 
some  20,000  horses  in  a  few  weeks  in  1912  in  Kansas 
and  adjoining  states.  The  cattle  plague  (Rinderpest)  has 
repeatedly  destroyed  the  herds  of  the  Herero  Negroes  and 
it  is  stated  that  probably  not  one  in  ten  thousand  wild 
buffalo  in  west  Africa  and  Uganda  survived  the  last  epi- 
demic some  twenty-five  years  ago. 

The  financial  loss  entailed  by  disease  among  domestic 
stock  is  enormous  as  our  government  reports  reveal. 

Live  Stock  —  Losses  from  Disease  in  United  States 

Hog  cholera $75,000,000 

Texas  fever  and  cattle  ticks    40,000,000 

Tuberculosis     25,000,000 

Contagious  abortion    20,000,000 

Blackleg    6,000,000 

Anthrax    1,500,000 

Scabies  of  sheep  and  cattle 4,600,000 

Glanders  5,000,000 

Other  diseases 22,000,000 

Parasites    5,000,000 

Poultry  diseases  8,750,000 

$212,850,000 

Considering  three  of  our  common  food  animals  we  find 
a  reported  loss  in  1913  in  the  United  States : 

Swine,  119  out  of  every  1000  or  7,005,000  from  cholera  chiefly 
Cattle,     19  out  of  every  1000  from  diseases 
Cattle,     10  out  of  every  1000  from  exposure 

Sheep,    42  out  of  every  1000  or  1,737,000  from  disease  and  exposure 
Total  money  loss  $150,000,000 

Some  200  insects  attack  domestic  animals  in  this  coun- 
try. If  we  are  to  protect  ourselves  from  great  loss  as 
well  as  from  disease,  we  must  control  the  fleas,  flies,  ticks, 
and  other  germ-carrying  forms.  By  a  direct  warfare  on 
ticks  we  have  checked  the  spread  of  such  diseases  as 
"  Texas-fever  "  among  the  stock ;  and  the  Bureau  of  Ani- 


THE  CONTEOL  OF  NATUEE       145 

mal  Industry  was  able  to  report  in  1914  that  30  per  cent 
of  the  territory  formerly  cursed  by  ticks  was  free  from 
them  and  the  quarantine  lifted.  Ten  per  cent  of  the 
calves  in  some  regions  were  formerly  lost  through  black- 
leg. Now  by  the  use  of  a  virus  the  loss  is  less  than  .5 
per  cent.  Sheep  scab  and  cattle  mange  are  now  eliminated 
on  135,000  square  miles  formerly  quarantined.  We  have 
recently  discovered  that  tapeworm  cysts  are  rather  com- 
mon in  sheep  and  we  shall  have  to  guard  against  a  possible 
infection  of  human  beings.  About  160  persons  die  of 
rabies  and  the  Pasteur  Institute  treats  some  1500  patients 
each  year.  If  we  are  to  rid  ourselves  of  this  dread  disease 
we  must  stamp  it  out  in  the  animals.  The  epidemic  of 
"  foot  and  mouth  "  disease  of  1914  and  1915  did  enor- 
mous damage,  compelled  the  destruction  of  valuable  herds 
of  stock  and  interfered  with  commerce  and  ordinary  farm 
life  in  many  ways.  It  was  overcome  by  government  ac- 
tion, otherwise  we  might  have  lost  most  of  our  cattle. 

To  these  problems  man  has  given  great  attention  and 
veterinary  science  has  rapidly  advanced.  The  story  of 
the  man  who  applied  to  the  government  for  advice  as  to 
treatment  of  the  sick  pig  and  was  told  how  to  cure  it,  while 
his  neighbor  was  informed  that  the  government  could  give 
no  aid  to  his  sick  wife,  really  illustrates  the  relative  at- 
tention given  by  our  national  government  to  the  welfare 
of  plants  and  stock.  Disease-resisting  plants  have  been 
found  or  developed.  The  farmer  may  get  numberless 
pamphlets  and  volumes  free  by  request  from  state  or  na- 
tional agricultural  departments.  The  transportation  of 
plants  and  animals  even  between  the  different  states  is  care- 
fully regulated  lest  disease  be  carried.  In  the  fall  of  1913 
the  importation  of  potatoes  from  certain  foreign  territory 
was  suspended  because  of  disease  there,  and  similar  pro- 


146         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

hibitions  frequently  prevail.  In  1916  the  spread  of  the 
white  pine  blister  rust  began  to  threaten  our  pine  forests 
and  the  importation  of  nursery  stock  from  Europe  was  pro- 
hibited. These  measures  may  not  be  adequately  carried 
out  in  all  cases,  but  they  show  that  man  has  come  to  see 
the  nature  of  his  task  in  this  regard  and  is  determined  to 
devise  satisfactory  methods  of  protecting  himself  and  his. 
Let  no  one  get  the  impression  that  man  wholly  controls 
the  situation.  The  blight  that  is  destroying  our  native 
chestnuts  presents  a  problem  which  no  man  can  yet  solve. 
In  Ceylon  the  coffee  industry  was  entirely  destroyed  be- 
tween 1870  and  1890  by  a  fungus  which  fed  on  the  leaves 
of  the  bush. 

We  have  now  hurriedly  surveyed  three  of  the  chief  fields 
in  which  man's  control  of  nature  may  be  seen :  ( 1 )  physi- 
cal materials,  (2)  food  plants  and  domestic  animals,  (3) 
diseases.  By  his  control  of  materials  and  natural  forces 
he  drives  his  engines  and  constructs  his  machines  and 
buildings.  In  limited  areas  he  modifies  temperature  and 
protects  himself  against  the  weather.  From  plants  and 
animals  he  gets  his  food  and  clothing.  Hence  he  has 
spread  over  most  of  the  earth  and  made  himself  at  home. 
Of  the  higher  forms  of  life  he  alone  and  those  of  the 
lower  that  he  protects  are  increasing  steadily.  It  is  com- 
mon to  speak  of  his  marvelous  progress  in  control.  It 
seems  to  me  more  correct  to  say  that  he  has  made  some 
promising  beginnings.  Over  wind  and  wave  he  exercises 
little  mastery.  The  wonderful  energy  of  the  tides  and 
the  rays  of  the  sun  still  await  his  call.  The  mass  of  ele- 
ment he  rarely  uses  and  the  bulk  of  the  forms  of  life  are 
of  little  service,  to  say  nothing  of  his  controlling  them 
for  his  purposes.  Disease  weakens  his  strength  and  that 
of  his  animals.  Weeds  hinder  his  agriculture.  The  point 


THE  CONTROL  OF  NATURE       147 

is  that  viewing  what  he  has  done  with  the  few  powers  he 
does  employ  his  problem  does  not  lie  in  any  "  niggardli- 
ness of  nature,"  to  use  a  favorite  expression  of  the  older 
economists,  nor  are  we  driven  to  think  of  any  inability  on 
his  part.  His  power  of  creating  wealth  is  steadily  grow- 
ing. He  may  continue  to  eliminate  the  harmful  and  in- 
crease the  helpful  forms  of  life  indefinitely,  so  far  as  one 
can  see. 

The  final  tests  of  man's  control  are  probably  his  own 
span  of  life  and  his  death  rate.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
average  life  in  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  from 
18  to  20  years;  today  it  is  between  40  and  50.  In  the 
United  States  it  is  now  44  for  men,  46  for  women;  in 
Sweden  with  regular  gymnastics  50  for  men  and  53  for 
women;  in  India  by  contrast  it  is  23  for  men,  24  for 
women.  The  death  rate  has  likewise  fallen.  In  the 
seventeenth  century  in  London  it  was  50  per  thousand, 
now  it  is  15.  In  Boston  in  1700  it  was  34,  now  it  is 
about  14.  In  New  York  City  in  1866  the  death  rate  was 
36;  in  1913  only  14.  The  deaths  in  the  same  city  for 
1912  were  73,008,  but  had  the  death  rate  of  1866  ob- 
tained there  would  have  been  188,000  deaths  and  1,150,000 
more  cases  of  serious  illness  than  there  were. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

BAILEY,  L.  H.    Cyclopedia  of  American  Agriculture.    1907. 

"  Cyclopedia    of    American    Horticulture    (2nd 

Ed.).    1914. 
CAMAC,  C.  N.  B.    Epoch  Making  Contributions  to  Medicine. 

1909. 

CANDOLLE,  A.  DE.    Origin  of  Cultivated  Plants.    1885. 
DUPLEIN,  HESSE  u.    Thierbau  und  Leben.    1914. 
EALAND,  C.  A.    Insects  and  Man.    1915. 
FORBUSH,  E.  H.    The  Domestic  Cat.    1916. 
GORGAS,  W.  C.     Sanitation  in  Panama.    1915. 


148         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

HEHN,  V.     Wanderings  of  Plants  and  Animals.     1885. 

HILL,  H.  W.    The  New  Public  Health.    1916. 

HILZHEIMER,  M.    Die  Hausthiere  in  Abstammung  u.  Entwicke- 

lung.     1909. 
HOPKINS,  A.  A.    The  Book  of  Progress:    1.  Man  the  Creator. 

2.  Man  the  Destroyer.    3.  Man  and  Nature.    1915. 
KEEN,  W.  W.    Animal  Experimentation  and  Medical  Progress 

1914. 

LEPRINCE  and  ORENSTEIN.    Mosquito  Control  in  Panama.    1916. 
LOCK,  K.  H.    Rubber  and  Rubber  Planting.     1913. 
MARTIN,  E.  A.    The  Story  of  a  Piece  of  Coal.    1903. 
MASON,  O.  T.     The  Origins  of  Invention.     1895. 
Progress  of  the  Century,  the.    Monographs  by  numerous  authors. 

1902. 
RILEY,  W.  A.,  and  JOHANNSEN,  O.  A.    Handbook  of  Medical 

Entymology.     1915. 

ROGERS,  J.  E.    The  Book  of  Useful  Plants.    1913. 
WILLIAMS,  H.  S.    Miracles  of  Science.    1914. 
WELUS,  J.  C.    Agriculture  in  the  Tropics  (2nd  EcL).    1914. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN 

The  real  test  of  the  scientific  work  of  a  man  lies  in  the 
accuracy  of  his  observations,  not  in  the  permanency  of 
his  explanations.  Assuming  that  the  observer  has  really 
seen  that  which  he  describes  and  has  not  been  fooled  by 
his  senses,  the  record  stands  for  all  time.  His  attempt 
to  explain  the  causes  of  what  he  has  seen  is  limited  neces- 
sarily by  the  general  knowledge  of  his  time.  When  he 
goes  beyond  this  he  merely  guesses,  and  guesses  are  likely 
to  be  incorrect.  Darwin's  name  will  go  down  through 
the  ages  as  one  of  the  greatest  scientists,  yet  every  ex- 
planation and  guess  he  made  will  probably  yield  place 
some  day  to  others  based  on  fuller  and  more  accurate 
information  than  existed  in  his  day. 

Man  has  two  methods  of  approaching  his  intellectual 
problems  —  speculation  and  research.  Each  of  these  has 
its  advantages  and  dangers.  Since  there  are  several  pos- 
sible answers  to  most  questions,  speculation  may  possibly 
hit  on  the  correct  solution;  or,  as  often  happens,  may 
stimulate  the  search  for  evidence.  Research  is  much  more 
exacting  in  its  requirements  and  much  more  likely  to 
throw  out  of  court  questions  that  have  no  standing.  They 
speculated  long  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  to  the  number  of 
angels  that  could  stand  on  the  point  of  a  needle,  but  re- 
search methods  demanded  of  the  student  an  ability  to  see 
angels  that  was  lacking.  Any  given  man  is  likely  to 
combine  these  methods  and,  not  infrequently,  forget  when 
he  leaves  the  things  he  has  seen  and  enters  upon  the  dis- 

149 


150         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cussion  of  the  unseen.  This  habit  causes  his  later  readers 
great  inconvenience,  for  it  demands  a  knowledge  of  the 
author's  background.  To  find  Karl  Marx,  for  example, 
in  1848  writing  a  Communistic  Manifesto  and  objecting 
to  the  term  socialist  is  quite  disconcerting  until  the  mean- 
ing of  the  term  at  that  time  is  known. 

So  far  as  our  minds  can  perceive,  there  are  really  very 
few  ways  in  which  life  could  have  started  on  earth.  It 
was  either  created  by  some  outer  power  or  else  evolved 
because  of  the  nature  of  matter.  In  either  case  it  may 
have  been  an  event  occurring  at  one  time,  or  a  process  last- 
ing for  ages.  It  appeared  either  as  a  simple  or  finished 
product,  each  variety  of  organism  either  related  to  or  en- 
tirely distinct  from  other  varieties.  We  have  then  in 
essence  two  main  possibilities.  Life  was  created  (whether 
at  one  time  or  repeatedly,  whether  in  the  egg  or  the  adult 
stage) ;  life  was  evolved  (whether  at  one  time  or  repeat- 
edly), or  a  combination  of  the  two.  That  is,  life  was 
once  created  and  has  since  evolved.  Even  the  attempt  to 
trace  life  on  earth  to  other  planets  but  removes  the  ques- 
tion one  stage.  All  other  suggested  answers  are  but 
modifications  of  these. 

If  these  facts  be  kept  in  mind  we  shall  not  be  surprised 
that  the  ancient  Greeks  in  their  attempts  to  explain  the 
world  hit  upon  theories  that  are  strikingly  like  some  of 
the  results  of  modern  investigation.  Some  five  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  Thales  of  Miletus  saw  that  eternal 
change  characterized  nature  and  thought  that  water  was 
the  principal  element.  His  follower,  Anaximander,  as- 
serted that  living  beings  were  developed  from  lifeless 
matter.  In  the  mind  of  Empedocles  (495-435  B.  c.) 
these  ideas  took  such  definite  shape  that  he  has  been  called 
"  the  father  of  the  evolutionary  idea."  "  There  are,"  said 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  151 

he,  "  four  elements  —  eternal,  indestructible  —  Fire,  Air, 
Earth,  Water.  These  are  acted  upon  by  two  forces: 
Love,  which  unites;  Hate,  which  separates;  and  there 
arise  by  spontaneous  generation  living  organisms;  first 
plants,  then  animals."  Curiously  enough,  Empedocles 
asserts  that  parts  of  animals  precede  the  whole;  heads 
without  bodies,  "  eyes  that  strayed  up  and  down  in  want 
of  a  forehead,"  etc.,  which  combining  produced  monsters. 
These  died,  being  unable  to  reproduce,  and  gradually  more 
perfect  forms  replace  them.  Apparently  there  is  here  a 
vague  idea  of  a  struggle  for  existence  and  survival  of  the 
fittest. 

The  first  student  of  natural  history  known  to  us  was 
Aristotle  (384-322  B.  c.).  In  his  "  Physics  and  Natural 
History  of  Animals"  we  find  that  he  knew  some  five 
hundred  different  species  and  was  keen  enough  to  see 
that  sponges  were  animals.  His  study  led  him  to  the 
belief  that  purpose,  law  and  design  lay  back  of  nature. 
He  saw  some  of  the  facts  of  heredity  and  claimed  that 
children  inherited  the  characters  acquired  by  their  par- 
ents. He  saw  the  coordination  of  the  parts  of  the  body 
with  the  accompanying  division  of  labor.  Life  appeared 
to  him  as  a  function  of  the  organism. 

He  thought  that  before  the  higher  animals  appeared 
there  were  soft  masses  of  sexless  germs.  Apparently  at 
times  Aristotle  identified  these  germs  with  mythological 
monsters.  By  spontaneous  generation  inorganic  dust  is 
changed  to  plants  which  have  no  feeling,  later  come  ani- 
mals endowed  with  sensibility.  There  is  an  inner  perfect- 
ing principle  which  causes  an  evolution  into  the  higher 
and  more  beautiful  forms.  Matter  offers  resistance  to  the 
forces  shaping  it,  hence  struggle  is  a  natural  process  which 
results  in  progress.  He  rejected  the  implication  of  Em- 


152         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

pedocles  as  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest  for  he  said  that 
Empedocles  believed  in  chance.  Said  Aristotle :  "  It 
rains  not  from  chance,  but  from  necessity."  Had  not  his 
desire  to  emphasize  the  principle  of  law  led  him  to  re- 
ject this  idea  he  would  have  outlined  in  all  essentials  the 
evolutionary  theories  of  Darwin.  Yet  we  must  note  the 
crudity  and  inconsistency  of  many  of  his  ideas.  Eels  and 
flies  might  still  arise  from  spontaneous  generation. 
"  Plants  are  evidently  for  the  sake  of  animals  and  ani- 
mals for  the  sake  of  man :  thus  Nature,  which  does  noth- 
ing in  vain,  has  done  all  things  for  the  sake  of  man."  l 

It  was  not  accident  that  led  these  students  and  many 
others  here  unmentioned  to  see  that  the  beginnings  of 
life  were  probably  in  water  or  slime.  They  dwelt  by  the 
sea  and  were  familiar  with  the  fact  that  it  sheltered  many 
of  the  lower  forms  of  life.  They  believed  that  life  orig- 
inated in  its  lowest  forms  directly  from  the  earth,  that 
it  changed  by  a  process  of  evolution.  With  Aristotle  we 
reach  the  culmination  of  Greek  thought. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Greeks  combined  considerable 
knowledge  of  the  actual  world  with  very  shrewd  specula- 
tion. They  had  gained  a  conception  of  gradual  change 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex.  Their  ideas  of  cause  and 
law  were  gradually  extended  to  natural  phenomena  such 
as  rain,  storm,  lightning  and  even  to  the  action  of  the 
gods  themselves.  They  were  rapidly  approaching  the 
idea  of  a  "  reign  of  law."  But  the  Greek  nation  was 
tottering,  and  soon  to  fall.  The  Romans  were  interested 
in  other  problems  and  the  only  one  even  to  maintain  this 
scientific  attitude  was  Lucretius  (50  B.  c.)  whom  Clodd 
calls  the  "  first  anthropologist." 

The  oriental  idea  of  an  almighty  God  who  sits  on  high 

i  OSBOBN,  H.  F.     From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin,  p.  52. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  153 

and  directs  the  universe,  whose  will  is  law  and  whose  acts 
are  not  limited  by  law  replaces  the  Greek  philosophy. 
The  earth  which  the  Greeks  were  beginning  to  conceive 
of  as  a  globe  becomes  a  flat  surface.  Above  is  the  sky  sup- 
ported at  the  edges  in  some  fashion  by  pillars.  The  sky 
is  the  solid  firmament  often  thought  of  as  made  of  ice. 
Somewhere  above  the  sky  is  heaven.  The  stars  are  taken 
out  of  a  closet  and  hung  nightly  in  the  sky  by  God.  The 
lower  side  of  the  earth  was  the  "  antipodes  "  and  later  on 
there  was  much  discussion  as  to  whether  this  was  in- 
habited. The  fact  that  such  beings  would  have  their 
feet  above  their  heads  even  if  they  did  not  fall  into  space 
settled  this  question  in  the  negative.  Somewhere  further 
down  was  hell,  whose  glowing  colors  were  often  reflected 
in  the  evening  sky  when  the  sun  had  passed  beyond  the 
edge  of  the  world. 

The  early  Christians  were  too  busily  employed  either 
in  maintaining  existence  on  earth  or  getting  ready  for 
heaven  to  pay  much  attention  to  nature.  Gradually  the 
canon  of  the  Bible  took  form.  Early  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury Lactantius,  who  amusingly  declared  that  man  was 
so  named  because  made  from  the  earth,  "  homo  ex  humo," 
struck  the  note  which  dominated  theology  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred years.  The  statements  of  the  Bible,  literally  in- 
terpreted, are  to  be  the  final  authority  in  all  matters. 
This  conception  was  fastened  upon  the  church  by  the 
man  who  marks  the  end  of  the  old  era  as  well  as  the 
beginning  of  the  new. 

Augustine  (A.D.  354-430)  sought  to  harmonize  Aristotle 
with  the  biblical  accounts  of  creation.  He  did  not  ac- 
cept the  statements  of  Genesis  as  exact  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  explain  them.  Yet  in  his  commentary  on  Genesis 
he  wrote :  "  Nothing  is  to  be  accepted  save  on  the  author- 


154         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

ity  of  scripture,  since  greater  is  that  authority  than  all 
the  powers  of  the  human  mind."  2  The  origin  of  matter 
gave  him  trouble.  Augustine  said:  "Although  the 
world  has  been  made  of  some  material,  that  very  same 
material  must  have  been  made  out  of  nothing."  3  Hence 
all  life  developed  out  of  nothing.  He  said  further  that 
the  essence  or  seed  of  heaven,  earth  and  life  was  created 
by  God,  not  the  finished  product.  There  were  two  kinds 
of  germs:  (1)  the  visible,  put  directly  by  God  into  plants 
and  animals,  and  (2)  the  invisible,  which  developed  only 
under  favorable  conditions.  "  Certain  very  small  ani- 
mals may  not  have  been  created  on  the  fifth  and  sixth 
days,  but  may  have  originated  later  from  putrefying  mat- 
ter." 4  Man  with  his  soul  was  the  direct  product  of  God, 
but  other  forms  of  life  may  have  arisen  gradually  from 
the  "  casual  energy  and  potency "  of  the  seed.  Inde- 
pendent and  liberal  as  Augustine  was,  we  find  him  hold- 
ing to  the  conception  that  "  all  diseases  of  Christians  " 
were  caused  by  the  devils  common  in  the  air,  and  inter- 
preting the  saying  of  Jesus  "  compel  them  to  come  in  " 
"  as  a  Divine  warrant  for  the  slaughter  of  heretics."  5 

After  Augustine  the  appeal  was  not  to  evidence  and 
observation,  but  to  authority.  If  new  facts  appeared  they 
were  denied  or  explained  in  conformity  with  old  beliefs. 
With  few  exceptions  for  over  a  millennium  men  in  Eu- 
rope did  not  question  the  principle  established  by  Augus- 
tine, while  fire  and  the  stake  silenced  those  who  were 
obstinate.  By  an  appeal  to  supposed  truth  man  did  his 
best  to  prevent  himself  from  discovering  the  real  truth 

2  WHITE,  A.  D.    Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology,  Vol.  I,  p.  25. 

3  Ibid.,   p.   5. 

•*  CLODD,  EDW.    Pioneers  of  Evolution,  p.  74. 
e  Ibid.,  p.  76. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  155 

about  the  world  in  which  he  lived.  Strange  to  say,  the 
grim  reality  of  this  great  struggle  is  dimly  realized  even 
today  by  the  majority  who  call  themselves  educated.  I 
can  only  hope  that  any  one  chancing  to  read  this  chapter 
may  be  moved  to  read  Andrew  D.  White's  "  Warfare  of 
Science  with  Theology"  that  he  may  gain  a  greater  ap- 
preciation of  the  cost  of  his  intellectual  heritage. 

The  constant  efforts  to  explain  and  interpret  Genesis 
made  necessary  by  new  discoveries  led  to  most  interesting 
and  amusing  results.  Ingenious  speculation  produced  the 
idea  that  the  world  was  instantly  created  and  yet  that  the 
process  took  six  days.  Aquinas,  the  great  follower  of 
Aristotle  and  Augustine,  refined  this  by  saying  that  the 
essence  was  instantly  created  but  the  shaping  took  six 
days. 

The  Genesis  account  said  that  light  and  darkness  ap- 
pear on  the  first  day  although  the  sun  and  moon  are  not 
created  till  the  fourth.  This  difficulty  is  circumvented 
by  the  idea  that  darkness  and  light  are  independent  enti- 
ties. As  Ambrose  said,  "  We  must  remember  that  the 
light  of  day  is  one  thing  and  the  light  of  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars  another  —  the  sun  by  his  rays  appearing  to  add  luster 
to  the  daylight.  For  before  sunrise  the  day  dawns,  but 
is  not  in  full  refulgence,  for  the  sun  adds  still  further  to 
its  splendor."  6 

If  God  was  all-powerful  and  all  on  earth  was  designed 
for  man,  how  was  it  that  injurious  animals  were  created  ? 
The  answer  was  found  to  lie  in  the  result  of  sin.  Before 
Adam  fell  there  was  no  sin,  no  suffering,  no  antagonism 
between  different  species.  Bede  said :  "  Thus  fierce  and 
poisonous  animals  were  created  for  terrifying  man  (be- 

e  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  13. 


156         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cause  God  foresaw  that  he  would  sin)  in  order  that  he 
might  be  made  aware  of  the  final  punishment  of  hell."  7 
Peter  Lombard  thought  "no  created  things  would  have 
been  hurtful  to  man  had  he  not  sinned :  they  became  hurt- 
ful for  the  sake  of  terrifying  and  punishing  vice  or  of 
proving  and  perfecting  virtue:  they  were  created  harm- 
less and  on  account  of  sin  became  hurtful."  7  Wesley 
wrote :  "  None  of  these  attempted  to  devour  or  in  any 
wise  hurt  one  another:  .  .  .  the  spider  was  as  harmless 
as  the  fly,  and  did  not  lie  in  wait  for  blood."  7  Watson, 
the  evangelical  reformer  of  the  eighteenth  century,  thought 
the  serpent  had  been  punished  for  his  sins.  "  We  have 
no  reason  at  all  to  believe  that  the  animal  had  a  serpentine 
form  in  any  mode  or  degree  until  its  transformation :  that 
he  was  then  degraded  to  a  reptile  to  go  upon  his  belly 
imports,  on  the  contrary,  an  entire  loss  and  alteration  of 
the  original  form."  7  Augustine  thought  that  many  forms 
of  life  were  superfluous,  yet  that  in  some  way  they  com- 
pleted the  design  of  nature,  while  Luther  held  flies  to  be 
the  images  of  devils  and  heretics  sent  by  the  devil  to 
bother  him  while  reading. 

The  appeal  to  authority  produced  other  results  in  the 
field  of  natural  history  equally  interesting.  "  Hence  such 
contributions  to  knowledge  as  that  the  basilisk  kills  ser- 
pents by  his  breath  and  men  by  his  glance,  that  the  lion 
when  pursued  effaces  his  tracks  with  the  end  of  his  own 
tail,  that  the  pelican  nurses  her  young  with  her  own  blood, 
that  serpents  lay  aside  their  venom  before  drinking,  that 
the  salamander  quenches  fire,  that  the  hyena  can  talk  with 
shepherds,  that  certain  birds  are  born  of  the  fruit  of  a 
certain  tree  when  it  happens  to  fall  into  the  water,  with 
other  masses  of  science  equally  valuable."  8  Bartholomew, 

7  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  pp.  28,  29. 
« Ibid.,  p.  33. 


THJB  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  157 

an  English  Franciscan,  in  his  book  "  The  Properties  of 
Things  "  which  went  through  ten  editions  in  the  fifteenth 
century  and  was  much  used  by  preachers  tells  us  that 
"  If  the  crocodile  findeth  a  man  by  the  water's  brim  he 
slayeth  him,  then  he  weepeth  over  him  and  swalloweth 
him."  9  Bestiaries  such  as  that  of  William  of  Normandy 
were  widely  employed.  "  Pious  use  was  made  of  this 
science,  especially  by  monkish  preachers.  The  phenix 
rising  from  his  ashes  proves  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion; the  structure  and  mischief  of  monkeys  proves  the 
existence  of  demons;  the  fact  that  certain  monkeys  have 
no  tails  proves  that  Satan  has  been  shorn  of  his  glory ;  the 
weasel,  which  l  constantly  changes  its  place '  is  a  type  of 
the  man  estranged  from  the  word  of  God,  who  findeth  no 
rest."  10  The  Dominican  Nider  in  the  "  Ant  Hill "  as- 
serted that  the  Ethiopian  ants  were  as  large  as  dogs  and  had 
horns.  He  thought  they  typified  the  heretics,  Wyclif  and 
Huss,  who  "  bark  and  bite  against  the  truth."  At  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  Father  Kircher,  a  Jesuit 
professor  at  Rome,  was  sure  that  sirens  and  griffins  were 
among  the  animals  taken  into  the  ark. 

The  Protestant  Reformation,  in  spite  of  its  protest 
against  the  authority  of  tradition  as  set  forth  by  the 
church,  instead  of  introducing  the  rule  of  reason  but 
served  to  strengthen  the  position  of  the  Bible  as  the  source 
of  knowledge.  Luther  and  Calvin  held  as  firmly  to  its 
literal  interpretation  as  did  Bossuet  or  Aquinas.  Luther 
denounced  reason  as  the  "  arch-whore,"  "  the  devil's 
bride."  He  called  Aristotle  "  prince  of  darkness,  horrid 
impostor,  public  and  professed  liar,  beast  and  twice 
execrable."  To  Copernicus  he  is  equally  complimentary: 

9  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  34. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  35. 


158         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OP  SOCIETY 

"  This  '  upstart  astrologer/  this  '  fool  who  wishes  to  re- 
verse the  entire  science  of  astronomy/  for  '  sacred  scrip- 
ture tells  us  that  Joshua  commanded  the  sun  to  stand  still 
and  not  the  earth/"11  Well  might  Erasmus  say: 
"  Learning  perished  where  Luther  reigned."  12 

The  general  belief  of  this  later  day  may  be  thus  stated. 
Accepting  the  calculation  of  the  famous  Dr.  Lightfoof, 
vice-chancellor  of  Cambridge  University,  "man  was 
created  by  the  Trinity  on  23d  October,  4004  B.  c.,  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning."  Moreover,  his  studies  enabled 
him  to  declare  that  "  heaven  and  earth,  center  and  circum- 
ference, were  created  all  together,  in  the  same  instant, 
and  clouds  full  of  water."  13  Melanchthon  put  the  date 
of  creation  at  3963  B.  o.  while  Pope  Urban  VIII  fixed  it 
in  the  year  5199  B.  o.  The  chronology  of  Bishop  Usher 
was  printed  in  many  editions  of  the  Bible  and  was  quite 
generally  regarded  as  almost  if  not  quite  inspired.  So 
accurate  was  this  general  scheme  considered  that  in  the 
nineteenth  century  Dr.  Adam  Clark  wrote  "  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  a  mistake,  the  unerring  Spirit  of  God  di- 
rected Moses  in  the  selection  of  his  facts  and  the  ascertain- 
ing of  his  dates,"  while  a  famous  Egyptologist,  Wilkinson, 
modified  the  dates  got  from  the  monuments  to  fit  the  ac- 
cepted date  of  the  flood.14  Yet  two  hundred  years  after 
Lightfoot,  it  was  known  that  a  great  and  ancient  civiliza- 
tion flourished  in  Asia  at  the  time  he  thought  creation 
took  place. 

All  the  different  kinds  of  plants  and  animals  had  been 
cneated  in  the  week  set  apart  for  that  purpose.  The 

11  CLODD,  EDW.    o.  c.,  p.  89. 
"Ibid.,  p.  87. 
is  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  9. 
i*  Ibid.,  pp.  1-256. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  159 

crowning  achievement  was  man,  woman  being  but  an  after- 
thought —  a  side  issue,  as  it  were  —  and  many  held  that 
man  had  one  less  rib  than  woman.  The  contrast  between 
man  and  the  other  animals  was  often  emphasized.  He  had 
been  directly  formed  by  the  hands  of  God,  while  the  others 
had  appeared  at  the  call  of  his  voice  from  the  earth  or  sea. 
In  spite  of  the  threats  of  the  Athanasian  creed  against 
all  who  should  "  confound  the  persons  "  or  "  divide  the 
substance  of  the  Trinity"  there  was  considerable  discus- 
sion as  to  the  actual  creator.  In  1667  Abraham  Milius, 
author  of  "  The  Origin  of  Animals  and  the  Migrations 
of  Peoples,"  suggested  that :  "  the  earth  and  the  waters, 
and  especially  the  heat  of  the  sun  with  that  slimy  and 
putrid  quality  which  seems  to  be  inherent  in  the  soil,  may 
furnish  the  origin  for  fishes,  terrestrial  animals  and 
birds."  15  He  seems  to  have  based  this  idea  on  the  sen- 
tence "  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after 
his  kind."  In  the  seventh  century  St.  Isidore  had  claimed 
that  "bees  are  generated  from  decomposed  veal,  beetles 
from  horseflesh,  grasshoppers  from  mules,  scorpions  from 
crabs."  18  This  conception  of  a  secondary  or  indirect 
creation  of  many  lower  forms  was  widely  held. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  Nehemiah  Grew  of  the 
Royal  Society  wrote  in  his  "  Cosmologia  Sacra  "  that  "  a 
crane  which  is  scurvy  meat,  lays  but  two  eggs  but  a  pheas- 
ant and  partridge,  both  excellent  meat,  lay  and  hatch  fif- 
teen or  twenty.  .  .  .  Those  of  value  which  lay  few  at  a 
time  sit  the  oftener,  as  the  woodcock  and  the  dove.  .  .  . 
If  nettles  sting,  it  is  to  secure  an  excellent  medicine  for 
children  and  cattle.  ...  If  the  bramble  hurts  man,  it 
makes  all  the  better  hedge.  ...  If  it  chances  to  prick  the 
owner,  it  tears  the  thief.  .  .  .  Weasels,  kites,  and  other 

is  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  46. 
"Ibid.,  pp.   1-55. 


160         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

hurtful  animals  induce  us  to  watchfulness,  thistles  and 
moles  to  good  husbandry ;  lice  oblige  us  to  cleanliness  in  our 
bodies;  spiders  in  our  houses,  and  the  moth  in  our 
clothes."  17  Inasmuch  as  all  was  created  for  man,  disease, 
pestilence,  storm  and  famine  were  but  mysterious  exercise 
of  God's  will  for  man's  benefit.  The  elements  were  used 
to  influence  men,  as  warnings,  or  as  punishments  for  sin. 
Tertullian  thought  the  Scripture  proved  that  lightning  was 
identical  with  hell  fire.  Then  came  a  gradual  growth  of  a 
belief  in  the  diabolical  origin  of  storms  which  might  be 
offset  by  exorcism.  Luther  claimed  that  the  sign  of  the 
cross  with  the  use  of  the  text  "  The  word  was  made 
flesh  "  would  put  storms  to  flight. 

Man  created  in  the  image  of  God  was  perfect  from  a 
physical  standpoint.  Therefore  though  manslaughter  was 
common  and  lightly  regarded,  the  dissection  of  the  body 
was  forbidden  as  impious.  What  God  had  wished  man  to 
know  about  the  nature  of  things  had  been  revealed  in  the 
Scriptures.  Moreover  Eve's  curiosity  had  resulted  in  the 
fall  of  Adam  and  the  imposition  upon  the  human  race  of 
the  curse  of  work.  Inquiry  was  therefore  taboo.  Against 
all  inquiry  which  in  any  way  might  reflect  on  ancient  be- 
liefs the  church,  whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  threw 
its  mighty  influence. 

In  1650  the  Academy  for  the  Study  of  Animals  was 
founded  at  Naples  but  was  suppressed  by  theologians. 
The  Protestants  opposed  the  founding  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety of  London  in  1645.  Leopold  de'  Medici  was  bribed 
by  a  Cardinal's  hat  to  neglect  the  Florentine  Academy  in 
which  he  was  interested.  Leibnitz  was  prevented  by  the 
priests  from  founding  the  Academy  of  Science  at  Vienna  in 
1712.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  efforts  to  defend  "  the  sacred 

17  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  43. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  161 

deposit  of  truth  committed  to  the  church,"  thinking  men 
were  driven  to  new  conceptions.  Campanella  was  im- 
prisoned, Copernicus  escaped  the  inquisition  by  a  timely 
death,  Bruno  was  burned  at  the  stake  in  1600,  the  aged 
Galileo  was  forced  to  recant ;  yet  these  men  with  Kepler, 
Descartes  and  Newton  destroyed  the  Ptolemaic  system. 
Against  Newton  it  was  urged  that  he  "  '  took  from  God 
that  direct  action  on  his  works  so  constantly  ascribed  to 
him  in  Scripture  and  transferred  it  to  material  mechan- 
ism '  and  that  he  '  substituted  gravitation  for  Provi- 
dence.' "  18  ^Notwithstanding  the  opposition  it  became 
clear  that  the  sun  and  not  the  earth  was  the  center  of  our 
system. 

The  discovery  of  the  compass,  the  sextant,  the  world- 
wide journeys  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  fur- 
nished a  mass  of  facts  which  simply  refused  to  be  classified 
on  the  old  basis. 

The  fossil  remains  discovered,  from  time  to  time  caused 
questions.  Zenophanes  (500  B.  c.)  as  well  as  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  in  the  fifteenth  century  had  correctly  explained 
them  but  their  suggestions  were  not  accepted.  They  were 
due  to  some  "  formative  quality  "  or  "  plastic  virtue  "  of 
the  soil ;  to  "  lapidific  juice  " ;  to  "  the  influence  of  heav- 
enly bodies."  Perhaps  they  had  been  put  there  by  the 
devil  to  tempt  men  to  desert  their  faith  or  God  had  es- 
tablished them  to  mock  man's  curiosity.  The  flood  was 
also  accepted  as  explanation,  though  the  fact  that  these 
forms  did  not  correspond  to  any  that  Noah  seemed  to  have 
had  in  the  ark  was  not  unnoticed.  The  great  remains 
of  mammoth  and  mastodon  appeared  to  verify  the  state- 
ment that  "there  were  giants  in  those  days,"  and  they 
were  sometimes  permanently  exhibited  in  churches  as 

is  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  16. 


162         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

proofs  of  the  Bible.  In  1718  a  book  was  published  which 
stated  that  the  height  of  Adam  was  123  feet  9  inches,  Eve, 
118  feet,  9  inches. 

The  discovery  of  strange  forms  of  life  in  the  so-called 
New  World  was  most  embarrassing.  St.  Paul  had  de- 
clared that  the  gospel  had  gone  to  all  lands,  hence  Augus- 
tine had  decided  that  there  could  be  no  persons  living  in 
the  antipodes  or  other  unknown  and  distant  areas.  He 
thought  too  that  God  had  caused,  or  permitted,  the  angels 
to  distribute  the  species  over  the  earth.  In  1667  Milius 
was  puzzled  by  the  fact  that  many  animals  common  on 
earth  were  not  found  near  Mt.  Ararat.  He  could  not  con- 
ceive of  their  wandering  so  far.  The  suggestion  that  they 
had  been  carried  by  human  agency  was  opposed  as  early 
as  1590  by  Joseph  Acosta  in  his  "  Natural  and  Moral 
History  of  the  Indies."  "  It  was  sufficient,  yea,  very 
much,  for  men  driven  against  their  willes  by  tempest, 
in  so  long  and  unknowne  a  voyage,  to  escape  with  their 
owne  lives,  without  busying  themselves  to  carrie  Woolves 
and  Foxes,  and  to  nourish  them  at  sea."  19  Even  assum- 
ing that  the  animals  in  some  mysterious  fashion  had  made 
their  way  over  earth,  how  could  such  species  as  the  sloths 
of  South  America  make  so  great  a  journey  from  Ararat  ? 
If  the  kangaroo,  duck-bill  and  apteryx  could  reach  Aus- 
tralia, why  not  the  carnivorous  wolves  and  tigers  of  the 
Asian  mainland?  When  relatively  few  species  were 
known  the  story  of  Noah's  ark  did  not  seem  incredible, 
particularly  as  Origen  had  asserted  that  the  cubit  was  six 
times  longer  than  had  been  supposed  and  Bede  had  claimed 
that  Noah  spent  100  years  in  its  construction,  while  the 
animals  on  board  were  miraculously  fed.  Even  these 

i»  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  46. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  163 

additions  were  inadequate  when  the  great  multitude  of 
animals  was  realized. 

Difficulty  also  arose  over  the  question  of  creation. 
Aquinas  said  "  Nothing  was  made  by  God,  after  the  six 
days  of  creation,  absolutely  new,  but  it  was  in  some  sense 
included  in  the  work  of  the  six  days,"  and  that  "  even  new 
species,  if  any  appear,  have  existed  before  in  certain 
native  properties,  just  as  animals  are  produced  from  putre- 
faction." 20  It  did  not  escape  observation  that  there  were 
two  not  altogether  harmonious  accounts  in  Genesis.  In 
the  first  (Gen.  1:20)  it  is  stated  that  the  waters  bring 
forth  fishes,  marine  animals  and  birds,  while  in  the  sec- 
ond (Gen.  2: 19)  it  is  stated  that  land  animals  and  birds 
were  created  from  the  ground.  John  Lightfoot  tried  to 
reconcile  another  divergence  in  the  accounts  by  saying  that 
of  the  "  clean  sort  of  beasts  there  were  seven  of  every  kind 
created,  three  couples  for  breeding  and  the  odd  one  for 
Adam's  sacrifice  on  his  fall,  which  God  foresaw ;  "  of  un- 
clean beasts  only  one  couple.21  These  divergencies  caused 
little  trouble  —  the  real  question  lay  in  the  supposed  im- 
mutability of  species  each  of  which  appeared  at  the  time 
of  the  creation  and  remained  unchanged.  Yet  there  was 
as  has  been  indicated  a  general  belief  in  the  spontaneous 
generation  of  types  more  or  less  insignificant.  The  deci- 
sion was  in  favor  of  permanency. 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626)  expressed  a  doubt  as  to 
the  fixity  of  species  and  asked  if  the  changes  that  had  ap- 
parently taken  place  could  be  due  to  the  accumulated 
effects  of  variations.  Bacon  was  the  first  of  a  series  of 
great  men,  which  included  Descartes,  Leibnitz,  Kant,  Les- 

20  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  55. 

21  Ibid.,  pp.  1-27. 


164         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

sing,  and  Schelling  who  broke  away  from  the  old  moor- 
ings. By  emphasizing  variation,  they  paved  the  way  for 
the  theory  of  evolution.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the 
Benedictine  Dom  Calmet  in  his  commentary  suggests  that 
all  the  species  of  one  genus  had  originally  been  one  species. 
This  idea  was  accepted  in  part  by  Linnaeus. 

Meantime  the  microscope  had  come  into  use.  In  1619 
Harvey  discovered  the  circulation  of  the  blood  though  he 
did  not  publish  the  fact  until  1628.  In  1661  Malpighi 
actually  saw  the  blood  circulating  through  the  capillaries. 
Vesalius  (1514—1564)  founded  a  School  of  Anatomy  at 
Padua. 

The  attempt  to  catalog  plants  and  animals  was  begun 
by  John  Ray  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  the  new  era 
in  natural  science  really  opened  with  Linnaeus,  the  Swed- 
ish botanist  (1707-1778).  He  held  that  the  creator  had 
produced  a  pair  of  each  species  of  animal  and  that  there 
had  been  no  increase  in  the  number  of  species.  Each 
species  retained  its  original  characteristics.  His  studies 
compelled  him  to  modify  this  attitude.  By  1762  he  ad- 
mits the  formation  of  new  types  and  explains  this  as  the 
result  of  the  crossing  of  species.  "  All  the  species  of  one 
genus  constituted  at  first  one  species;  they  were  subse- 
quently modified  by  hybrid  generation;  that  is,  by  inter- 
crossing with  other  species."  22  In  the  last  edition  of  his 
"  Systema  Natures  "  (1766)  he  no  longer  asserts  the  fixity 
of  species.  He  seems  to  have  thought  that  external  condi- 
tions could  cause  degeneration.  He  based  his  classifica- 
tion on  external  characters,  while  later  students  depend 
more  upon  structure,  but  this  was  inevitable,  and  Linnaeus 
rendered  tremendous  service  by  his  painstaking  observa- 

22  OSBOBW,  H.  F.    o.  c.,  p.  129. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  165 

tions.  It  is  to  him  that  we  are  indebted  for  our  system  of 
naming  the  different  species. 

Conservative  as  Linnaeus  was,  his  ideas  did  not  pass 
unchallenged.  His  discovery  that  an  alleged  miracle  — 
water  turned  into  blood  —  was  caused  by  the  appearance 
of  vast  multitudes  of  minute  insects,  led  to  his  denuncia- 
tion. One  bishop  said :  "  '  The  reddening  of  water  is  not 
natural '  .  .  .  '  when  God  allows  such  a  miracle  to  take 
place  Satan  endeavors,  and  so  do  his  ungodly  self-reliant, 
self-sufficient  and  worldly  tools,  to  make  it  signify  noth- 
ing.' '  The  discovery  is  denounced  as  a  "  Satanic 
abyss."  23 

As  we  have  seen,  Linnaeus  had  been  compelled  to  change 
his  opinion  on  the  fixity  of  species.  Evidence  was  gath- 
ering from  several  sides  on  this  point.  As  observations 
of  the  same  species  in  different  regions  increased  and 
specimens  were  brought  together  in  collections,  certain  well 
defined  varieties  appeared  which  were  not  sharply  separated 
at  all  points  but  gradually  blended.  Species  considered 
distinct  were  found  to  have  intermediate  forms.  The 
confidence  of  the  naturalists  in  the  fixity  of  species  was 
further  weakened  by  the  collection  of  geological  speci- 
mens. These  not  merely  indicated  that  many  old  forms 
no  longer  existed,  but  showed  so  clearly  that  present  forms 
bore  such  close  resemblance  to  the  older  that  the  inference 
that  the  latter  were  descended  from  the  former  was  un- 
avoidable. A  third  series  of  significance  was  that  offered 
by  existing  life  from  the  simplest  organisms  through  all 
the  forms  to  man  himself.  The  suggestion  .that  this 
showed  some  connection  was  inevitable.  Further  evidence 
was  gained  from  the  life  history  of  the  individuals  of  the 

23  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  p.  61. 


166         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

higher  species  which  were  seen  to  bear  striking  resemblance 
to  the  existing  chain  of  life  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
forms.  There  came  also  a  revival  of  interest  in  the  theo- 
ries of  the  Greeks  which  led  the  philosophers  who  were  by 
no  means  ignorant  of  the  significance  of  the  newer  scientific 
discoveries  into  a  new  field  of  speculation.  The  last  factor 
was  the  growth  of  anatomical  knowledge  which  raised 
many  questions  as  to  the  assumed  perfection  of  organisms 
and  indicated  that  many  parts  were  useless  survivals. 
Thus  the  way  was  cleared  for  a  new  viewpoint. 

The  first  observer  to  sense  the  new  order  was  Buffon 
(1707-1788).  In  early  life  he  shared,  as  did  Linnaeus, 
the  common  viewpoint.  Later  he  changed  his  views  mark- 
edly. "  The  pig  does  not  appear  to  have  been  formed  upon 
an  original,  special  and  perfect  plan,  since  it  is  a  compound 
of  other  animals;  it  has  evidently  useless  parts,  or  rather 
parts  of  which  it  cannot  make  any  use,  toes  all  the  bones  of 
which  are  perfectly  formed,  and  which,  nevertheless,  are  of 
no  service  to  it.  Nature  is  far  from  subjecting  herself  to 
final  causes  in  the  formation  of  her  creatures."  24 

In  middle  life  he  emphasized  the  rapid  variation  of 
species.  "  One  is  surprised  at  the  rapidity  with  which 
species  vary,  and  the  facility  with  which  they  lose  their 
primitive  characteristics  in  assuming  new  forms."  25  Or 
again :  "  How  many  species  being  perfected  or  degen- 
erated by  the  great  changes  in  land  and  sea,  by  the  favors 
or  disfavors  of  nature,  by  food,  by  the  prolonged  in- 
fluences of  climate,  contrary  or  favorable,  are  no  longer 
what  they^  formerly  were."  25 

Buffon  saw  the  changes  caused  by  domestication  of 
animals.  He  noted  the  high  birth  rate,  the  struggle  for 

24  OSBOBN,  H.  F.      O.  C.,  p.  132. 

26  Ibid,  p.  133. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  167 

existence  and  the  elimination  of  many  individuals.  He 
hints  at  the  common  ancestry  of  ass  and  horse,  of  man  and 
ape.  He  thought  the  environment  modified  animals  and 
urged  that  present  changes  be  studied  that  older  changes 
might  be  understood.  It  is  hard  to  judge  Buffon.  He  is 
frequently  contradictory.  He  recants  his  opinions  when 
attacked  on  theological  grounds  by  the  Sorbonne.  When 
expressing  himself  on  some  moot  points  he  suggests  that 
inasmuch  as  the  Bible  teaches  the  contrary  this  view  can- 
not be  true.  He  had  less  influence  than  Linnaeus  largely 
because  he  was  ahead  of  his  time  —  but  he  greatly  stimu- 
lated research. 

Erasmus  Darwin  (1731-1802)  squarely  broke  away 
from  the  idea  of  special  creation.  He  thought  that  life 
originated  in  water: 

"  Hence  without  parents,  by  spontaneous  birth, 
Rise  the  first  specks  of  animated  earth." 

In  unmistakable  language  he  pictures  the  evolution  of 
life  from  its  simplest  forms  to  man  himself.  "  When  we 
revolve  in  our  minds  the  metamorphosis  of  animals,  as 
from  the  tadpole  to  the  frog;  secondly,  the  changes  pro- 
duced by  artificial  cultivation,  as  in  the  breeds  of  horses, 
dogs  and  sheep;  thirdly,  the  changes  produced  by  con- 
ditions of  climate  and  of  season,  as  in  the  sheep  of  warm 
climates  being  covered  with  hair  instead  of  wool,  and  the 
hares  and  partridges  of  northern  climates  becoming  white 
in  winter ;  when,  further,  we  observe  the  changes  of  struc- 
ture produced  by  habit,  as  seen  especially  by  men  of 
different  occupations ;  or  the  changes  produced  by  artificial 
mutilation  and  prenatal  influences,  as  in  the  crossing  of 
species  and  production  of  monsters;  fourth,  when  we 
observe  the  essential  unity  of  plan  in  all  warm-blooded 


168         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

animals,  we  are  led  to  conclude  that  they  have  been  alike 
produced  from  a  similar  living  filament." 26  "  Many 
features  in  the  anatomy  of  man  point  to  a  former  quad- 
rupedal position,  and  indicate  that  he  is  not  yet  fully 
adapted  to  the  erect  position ;  that,  further,  man  may  have 
arisen  from  a  single  family  of  monkeys,  in  which,  acci- 
dentally, the  opposing  muscle  brought  the  thumb  against  the 
tips  of  the  fingers,  and  that  this  muscle  gradually  increased 
in  size  by  use  in  successive  generations."  27r  The  theory 
of  natural  selection  is  almost  the  sole  thing  in  which  Eras- 
mus Darwin  failed  to  anticipate  his  more  famous  grand- 
son. 

Though  there  is  no  evidence  that  Lamarck  (1744-1829) 
knew  of  the  work  of  Erasmus  there  is  a  striking  similarity 
in  the  ideas  of  the  two.  Lamarck  became  a  botanist  and 
was  closely  associated  with  Buffon.  At  the  age  of  forty- 
nine  he  changed  to  zoology  and  was  placed  in  charge  of 
the  invertebrates  at  the  Jardins  des  Plantes  in  Paris. 
Up  to  this  time  he  believed  in  the  fixity  of  species.  In 
1802  he  suggests  the  word  biology  as  the  title  of  natural 
science  and  sketches  an  evolution  theory  which  involved 
the  mutability  of  species  and  changes,  caused  not  directly 
by  the  environment,  as  Buffon  taught,  but  indirectly 
through  influence  upon  the  nervous  system.  His  "  Philos- 
ophic Zoologique  "  (1809)  presents  his  ideas  in  complete 
form.  He  states  four  laws: 

1.  Life  by  its  own  properties  constantly  tends  to  in- 

crease the  volume  of  every  organism  and  to  enlarge 
its  parts  up  to  the  limits  which  it  itself  fixes. 

2.  The  production  of  a  new  organ  in  an  animal  body 

results  from  a  new  need  which  continues  to  make 

2*CLODD,  E.      O.  C.,  p.  112. 

27  ibid.,  p.  113. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  169 

itself  felt  and  from  a  new  movement  which  this 
need  starts  and  continues. 

3.  The  development  of  the  organs  and  their  power  of 

action  is  constant  because  of  the  use  of  these 
organs. 

4.  Everything  which  has  been  acquired,  or  changed  in 

the  individual  during  its  life  is  preserved  in  the 
process  of  reproduction  and  transmitted  to  the 
new  individuals  which  come  from  those  that  have 
undergone  the  changes. 

Lamarck's  general  conception  is  simple.  The  creator 
endowed  matter  and  life  with  its  qualities.  Nature  is 
always  creating  the  lower  types.  The  simplest  forms 
appear  first  and  thenceforth  there  is  a  slow,  continuous 
evolution  which  has  taken  enormous  periods  of  time.  All 
species  shade  into  each  other.  The  gaps  are  merely  places 
where  we  have  lost  the  intermediate  forms.  The  changes 
are  not  caused  by  any  scheme  or  design  in  nature.  They 
result  from  the  reaction  to  the  environment.  "  Circum- 
stances influence  the  forms  of  animals.  But  I  must  not 
be  taken  literally,  for  environment  can  effect  no  direct 
changes  whatever  upon  the  organization  of  animals." 
Yet  on  plants  he  thought  direct  environmental  was  effective 
and  he  was  not  entirely  consistent  with  regard  to  animals. 
"  But  great  changes  in  environment  bring  about  changes 
in  the  habits  of  animals.  Changes  in  their  wants  neces- 
sarily bring  about  parallel  changes  in  their  habits.  If 
new  wants  become  constant  or  very  lasting,  they  form  new 
habits,  the  new  habits  involve  the  use  of  new  parts,  or  a 
different  use  of  old  parts,  which  results  finally  in  the 
production  of  new  organs  and  the  modification  of  old 
ones."  28 

28  OSBOBN,  H.   F.      O.   C.,   p.    168. 


170         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

This  is  the  famous  "  use  and  disuse  "  theory  'and  that  of 
the  "  inheritance  of  acquired  characters "  so  generally 
associated  with  his  name.  Now  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
that  in  Lamarck's  time  the  knowledge  of  the  actual  world 
was  pitifully  small  as  compared  to  that  we  have  today. 
His  explanation  seemed  to  meet  the  known  facts.  More- 
over, opposition  grew  not  out  of  the  details  of  his  scheme, 
but  out  of  the  hostility  to  any  suggestion  that  might  over- 
throw the  belief  in  a  special  creation.  Thus  Cuvier  called 
each  of  his  works  "  a  new  folly." 

Lamarck  thought  that  the  webbed  feet  of  water  birds 
had  developed  through  their  efforts  to  swim.  The  long 
neck  of  the  giraffe  was  due  to  its  stretching  to  reach  the 
limbs  of  the  trees  generation  after  generation.  Deer  de- 
veloped their  limbs  by  the  act  of  fleeing  from  enemies. 
Cattle  produced  horns  by  butting  their  heads  together. 
Likewise  the  vestigial  organs  have  degenerated  because  of 
failure  to  use  them.  Thus  he  would  have  explained  the 
eyes  of  the  mole,  the  blind  salamander  or  fishes  of  the 
caves  and  the  vermiform  appendix  in  man. 

Sometimes  his  explanations  became  absurd.  "  The 
snakes  sprang  from  reptiles  with  four  extremities;  but 
having  taken  up  the  habit  of  moving  along  the  earth  and 
concealing  themselves  among  bushes,  their  bodies,  owing 
to  repeated  efforts  to  elongate  themselves  and  to  pass 
through  narrow  spaces,  have  acquired  a  considerable 
length  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  width.  Since  long 
feet  would  have  been  very  useless,  and  short  feet  would 
have  been  incapable  of  moving  their  bodies,  there  resulted 
a  cessation  of  use  of  these  parts,  which  has  finally  caused 
them  to  totally  disappear,  although  they  were  originally 
a  part  of  the  plan  of  organization  in  these  animals."  As 
Osborn  remarks,  "  Such  crude  illustrations  certainly  did 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  171 

not  predispose  his  contemporaries  in  favor  of  his 
theory."  29 

Poor  and  blind  in  his  later  years,  Lamarck  was  ridi- 
culed and  opposed  by  the  mighty  Cuvier  who  believed  in 
a  series  of  special  creations  and  attributed  the  disappear- 
ance of  extinct  form  to  cataclysms  of  nature.  Lamarck 
understood  the  extinction  of  the  lower  forms,  but  thought 
that  man  must  have  destroyed  such  larger  animals  as  the 
mammoth.  Lamarck  made  little  impression  even  on 
France.  Not  until  after  the  middle  of  the  century  did 
he  begin  to  win  recognition  as  one  of  the  great  men  of 
his  day. 

In  the  next  generation  there  was  comparatively  little 
advance  so  far  as  the  theory  of  evolution  is  concerned. 
Patrick  Matthew  in  1831  was  the  first  to  clearly  state 
the  idea  of  natural  selection.  The  anonymous  work 
"  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation"  (1844), 
generally  attributed  to  Robert  Chambers,  by  accepting  the 
evolutionary  hypothesis  aroused  much  comment.  Mean- 
time the  botanists  were  approaching  the  new  standpoint. 
Meckel  and  von  Baer  showed  how  similar  all  animals  were 
in  the  embryonic  stages.  Rude  flint  implements  of  early 
man  were  discovered.  The  stage  was  being  set  for  the 
entrance  of  a  group  of  men  destined  to  have  an  influence 
on  human  thought  so  great  that  even  today  one  hardly 
dares  attempt  to  measure  it.  The  two  men  most  respon- 
sible for  the  movement  were  Charles  Darwin  (1809- 
1882)  and  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  (1823-1913). 

Darwin  wrote  in  his  "  Naturalist's  Voyage  Round  the 
World  " :  "  In  October,  1838,  that  is,  fifteen  months  after 
I  had  begun  my  systematic  inquiry,  I  happened  to  read 
for  amusement  Malthus  on  Population,  and  being  well 

29QSBOBN,  H.   F.      O.  C.,  p.    170. 


172         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

prepared  to  appreciate  the  struggle  for  existence  which 
everywhere  goes  on  from  long-continued  observations  of 
the  habits  of  plants  and  animals,  it  at  once  struck  me 
that  under  these  circumstances  favorable  variations  would 
tend  to  be  preserved,  and  unfavorable  ones  destroyed. 
The  result  of  this  would  be  the  formation  of  new 
species."  30  At  this  time  Darwin  believed  that  species 
were  separately  created.  Four  years  later  he  admits  that 
he  is  "  almost  convinced  that  species  are  not  (it  is  like 
confessing  a  murder)  immutable."  He  began  to  write 
in  1842  showing  his  work  to  the  geologist  Lyell  and  to 
Hooker.  Though  urged  to  publish  he  held  back  until  in 
1858  he  was  astonished  to  find  that  his  very  ideas  had 
been  independently  worked  out  by  Wallace  in  a  paper 
sent  by  him  to  Darwin  with  a  request  that  it  be  forwarded 
to  Lyell  if  considered  worthy.  The  upshot  was  that 
Wallace's  paper,  together  with  an  abstract  of  Darwin's, 
was  read  under  the  title  "  On  the  Tendency  of  Species  to 
Form  Varieties,  and  on  the  Perpetuation  of  Varieties  and 
Species  by  Natural  Selection"  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Linnaean  Society,  July  1,  1858.  An  abstract  of  Dar- 
win's manuscript  was  published  the  next  year  (1859) 
under  the  title  "  The  Origin  of  Species." 

A  terrific  storm  broke  out  in  theological  circles  when 
the  implications  of  the  book  were  realized.  "  Cardinal 
Manning  declared  Darwinism  to  be  a  '  brutal  philosophy, 
to  wit,  there  is  no  God  and  the  ape  is  our  Adam.' 
Protestant  and  Catholic  agreed  in  condemning  it  as  "an 
attempt  to  dethrone  God  '  as  '  a  huge  imposture,'  as  '  tend- 
ing to  produce  disbelief  of  the  Bible,'  and  '  to  do  away 
with  all  idea  of  God,'  as  '  turning  the  Creator  out  of 
doors.'  .  .  .  '  If,'  said  Dr.  Duifield  in  the  Princeton 

30  ClX>DD,  E.      O.  C.,  p.  132. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  173 

Review ,  i  the  development  theory  of  the  origin  of  man 
shall,  in  a  little  while,  take  the  place  —  as  doubtless  it 
will  —  with  other  exploded  scientific  speculations,  then 
they  who  accept  it  with  its  proper  logical  consequences 
will,  in  the  life  to  come,  have  their  portion  with  those 
who  in  this  life,  '  know  not  God  and  obey  not  the  gospel 
of  His  son.' '  Perhaps  the  most  notable  attack  came 
from  Samuel  Wilberforce,  then  Bishop  of  Oxford,  in  the 
Quarterly  Review  of  July,  1860.  " '  It  is,'  said  Hux- 
ley, in  his  review  of  Haeckel's  "  Evolution  of  Man,"  '  a 
production  which  should  be  bound  in  good  stoute  calf, 
or  better,  asses'  skin,  by  the  curious  book  collector,  to- 
gether with  Brougham's  attack  on  the  undulatory  theory 
of  light  when  it  was  first  propounded  by  Young.'  The 
bishop  declared  t  the  principle  of  natural  selection  to  be 
absolutely  incompatible  with  the  word  of  God'  and  as 
'  contradicting  the  revealed  relations  of  creation  to  its 
Creator.' "  31  .  .  .  "  Inconsistent  with  the  fulness  of  his 
glory:  ...  a  dishonoring  view  of  Nature."  Another 
preacher  said :  "  If  the  Darwinian  theory  is  true,  Genesis 
is  a  lie,  the  whole  framework  of  the  book  of  life  falls  to 
pieces,  and  the  revelation  of  God  to  man,  as  we  Christians 
know  it,  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare."  The  Methodist 
Quarterly  Review  (April,  1871)  said:  "attempting  to 
befog  and  pettifog  the  whole  question ;  "  "  infidelity ;  " 
"  sophistical  and  illogical."  The  American  Church  Re- 
view (July  and  October,  1865  and  January,  1866)  said: 
"  If  this  hypothesis  be  true,  then  the  Bible  is  an  unbear- 
able fiction  .  .  .  then  have  Christians  for  nearly  2000 
years  been  duped  by  a  monstrous  lie.  .  .  .  Darwin  re- 
quires us  to  disbelieve  the  authoritative  word  of  the 

si  CLODD,  E.    o.  c.,  pp.  160  and  161.     For  attacks  on  Darwin  and 
other  scientists,  see  White,  o.  c.,  I,  p.  70  ff. 


174         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Creator."  The  Catholic  World  (Vol.  xxvi,  p.  782)  said: 
"  Mr.  Darwin  is,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  the  mouth- 
piece or  chief  trumpeter  of  that  infidel  clique  whose  well- 
known  object  is  to  do  away  with  all  idea  of  a  God." 
Cardinal  Wiseman  with  consent  of  Rome  founded  an 
Academia  to  combat  new  heresy.  Protestants  started 
Victoria  Institute  from  whose  platform  Reverend  Walter 
Mitchell  announced  that  "  Darwinism  endeavors  to  de- 
throne God."  In  France  Monsignor  Segur  said :  "  These 
infamous  doctrines  have  for  their  only  support  the  most 
abject  passions.  Their  father  is  pride,  their  mother  im- 
purity, their  offspring  revolutions.  .They  come  from  hell 
and  return  thither,  taking  with  them  the  gross  creatures 
who  blush  not  to  proclaim  and  accept  them." 

In  the  "  Origin  of  Species  "  there  are  only  vague  refer- 
ences as  to  the  relation  of  man  to  the  organic  world  but 
the  logical  consequences  were  quickly  realized.  Huxley 
was  not  slow  to  show  the  connection  and  his  volume 
"  Evidence  as  to  Man's  Place  in  Nature  "  was  published 
in  1863.  Darwin  did  not  publish  his  book  "  The  Descent 
of  Man  "  until  1871. 

Again  came  an  outcry.  The  Dublin  University  Magar 
zine  said  that  Darwin  was  "  resolved  to  hunt  God  out  of 
the  world."  In  1877  Dr.  Constantin  James  published  a 
volume,  "  On  Darwinism,  or  the  Man- Ape,"  claiming  that 
Darwin  was  evidently  perpetrating  a  huge  joke.  For 
this  he  was  thanked  by  Pope  Pius  IX,  who  wrote  that 
he  "  '  refutes  so  well  the  aberrations  of  Darwinism,  ...  a 
system  which  is  repugnant  at  once  to  history,  to  the  tradi- 
tion of  all  peoples,  to  exact  science,  to  observed  facts,  and 
even  to  Reason  herself,  would  seem  to  need  no  refutation, 
did  not  the  alienation  from  God,  and  the  leaning  toward 
materialism,  due  to  depravity,  eagerly  seek  a  support  in 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  175 

all  this  tissue  of  fables.  .  .  .  When  pride  cometh  then 
cometh  shame.  But  the  corruption  of  this  age,  the 
machinations  of  the  perverse,  the  danger  of  the  simple, 
demand  that  such  fancies,  altogether  absurd  though  they 
are,  should  —  since  they  borrow  the  mask  of  science  — 
be  refuted  by  true  science.'  r  The  author  was  made  an 
officer  of  the  Papal  Order  of  St.  Sylvester.  The  next 
edition  (1882)  was  entitled  "Moses,  and  Darwin:  the 
Man  of  Genesis  compared  with  the  Man- Ape,  or  Religious 
Education  opposed  to  Atheistic."  The  Cardinal  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris  said :  "  We  have  at  last  a  handbook  which 
we  can  safely  put  into  the  hands  of  youth."  Even  Glad- 
stone issued  tirades  against  the  new  ideas.  The  Dean 
of  Chichester  warned  the  students  of  Oxford  that  "  those 
who  refuse  to  accept  the  history  of  the  creation  of  our  first 
parents  according  to  its  obvious  literal  intention,  and  are 
for  substituting  the  modern  dream  of  evolution  in  its 
place,  cause  the  entire  scheme  of  man's  salvation  to  col- 
lapse." Noah  Porter  of  Yale  said  this  would  cause  a 
tendency  towards  agnosticism  and  pantheism.  Rev. 
Dr.  Hodge  of  Princeton  declared  that  Christians  "have 
a  right  to  protest  against  the  arraying  of  probabilities 
against  the  clear  evidence  of  the  Scriptures."  When 
Darwin  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Laing  said  it  was  "  a  proof  that  England  was  no  longer 
a  Christian  country."  Against  these  rhetorical  objectors 
were  arrayed  such  men  as  Henry  Drummond  and  Joseph 
G.  Le  Conte  who  labored  to  show  that  evolution  and 
religion  were  not  antagonistic.  The  changed  attitude 
towards  the  Bible  resulting  from  "higher  criticism" 
compelled  a  revision  of  ideas.  By  the  end  of  the  century 
intelligent  religious  leaders  had  accepted  the  newer  phi- 
losophy and  a  few  years  later  it  was  the  basis  of  the 


176         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

thought  of  such  popular  leaders  as  Eucken  and  Berg- 
son. 

In  the  academic  world  there  was  at  first  much  oppo- 
sition. Men  holding  the  new  views  were  dismissed  from 
the  American  College  at  Beyrout.  Professor  Winchell 
was  forced  out  of  Vanderbilt,  President  Woodrow  from 
the  Seminary  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  In  England, 
Whewell,  author  of  the  great  "  History  of  the  Inductive 
Sciences,"  refused  to  allow  a  copy  of  the  "  Origin  of 
Species"  to  be  put  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  The  opposition  was  however  futile,  and  in 
the  main  short  lived,  though  I  know  of  a  recent  case  where 
a  public  school  director  in  a  middle  western  state  person- 
ally destroyed  some  text  books  in  which  evolution  was 
taught. 

The  scientific  world  was  ready  for  the  change  and  went 
over  to  the  new  position  almost  immediately.  A  few 
older  men,  like  Agassiz,  refused  to  be  convinced.  Asa 
Gray  and  John  Fiske  in  America,  Ernst  Haeckel  in 
Germany  and  Lyell  and  Huxley  in  England  were  early 
converts.  Herbert  Spencer,  an  evolutionist  before  Dar- 
win, joyfully  welcomed  the  new  evidence,  and  in  his 
"  Synthetic  Philosophy  "  was  the  first  to  make  universal 
application  of  the  principle. 

Darwin's  great  service  really  consisted  in  furnishing 
the  evidence  that  compelled  the  acceptance  of  a  theory  of 
evolution.  For  this  the  world  was  waiting  and  its  re- 
sponse was  so  immediate  that  in  a  generation  there  was 
hardly  a  man  in  any  field  of  science  or  philosophy  who 
did  not  profess  himself  an  evolutionist.  There  are  still 
some  few  who,  admitting  evolution  of  the  lower  animals, 
would  exempt  man ;  but  the  theological  bias  that  produces 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  177 

this  result  is  steadily  weakening.  Today  the  intelligent 
men  of  the  world  admit  freely  that  man  is  a  part  of  the 
great  animal  kingdom;  and  though  they  recognize  his 
relationship  to  the  chimpanzee,  no  longer  foolishly  look 
upon  any  existing  ape  as  typical  of  his  progenitor.  While 
the  doctrine  of  evolution  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  intellectual 
life  of  our  day  we  must  be  careful  not  to  confuse  evolution 
and  progress.  Evolution  is  merely  a  process  leading  to 
better  adaptation  to  given  conditions — ^it  may  be  pro- 
gressive or  retrogressive. 

Darwin  himself  once  said  that  mistaken  theories  are 
stimulating  but  that  mistaken  observations  are  sterilizing. 
Linnaeus,  Cuvier  and  Agassiz  all  opposed  the  concept  of 
evolution  but  few  men  did  more  to  compel  its  ultimate 
acceptance.  Darwin  was  primarily  interested  in  deter- 
mining the  causes  of  survival.  He  assumed  variation  and 
paid  little  attention  to  the  causes  thereof.  He  observed 
as  Kellogg  puts  it:  "  (1)  the  increase  by  multiplication  in 
geometrical  ratio  of  the  individuals  in  every  species  .  .  . 
(2)  the  always  apparent  slight  (to  greater)  variation  in 
form  and  function  existing  among  all  individuals  even 
though  of  the  same  generation  or  brood;  and  (3)  the 
transmission  with  these  inevitable  slight  variations,  by 
the  parent  to  its  offspring  of  a  form  and  physiology  essen- 
tially like  the  parental.  The  inferred  (also  partly  ob- 
served) facts  are:  (1)  a  lack  of  room  and  food  for  all 
these  new  individuals  .  .  .  and  consequently  a  competi- 
tion among  those  individuals  ...  (2)  the  probable 
success  in  this  competition  of  those  individuals  whose 
slight  differences  (variations)  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
give  them  an  advantage  over  their  confreres  .  .  .  and  (3) 
the  fact  that  these  '  saved '  individuals  will  .  .  .  hand 


178         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

down  to  the  offspring  their  advantageous  condition  of 
structure  and  physiology."  32 

Darwin  thought  that  the  lowest  forms  of  life  appeared 
first.  Through  reproduction,  variation  and  struggle  there 
resulted  a  slow,  gradual,  continuous  evolution  to  the 
higher  forms  until  man  was  reached.  He  saw  that  man 
by  artificial  selection  decided  what  types  of  domestic 
plants  and  animals  should  survive,  but  he  thought  that 
natural  selection  had  determined  earlier  evolution  in  the 
main.  To  this,  however,  he  added  sexual  selection  result- 
ing from  the  choice  of  mates  which  in  some  measure  he 
thought  had  been  a  determining  factor.  Later  on  he  was 
inclined  to  believe  that  perhaps  the  environment  produced 
some  changes  directly.  Darwin  put  man  also  wholly 
under  the  law  of  natural  selection,  but  Wallace  felt  that 
his  psychical  nature  could  not  be  accounted  for  on  this 
basis. 

As  was  hinted  at  the  first  of  the  chapter  the  fact  that 
Darwin  established  the  principle  of  evolution  by  his 
observations  by  no  means  implies  that  his  explanations 
of  the  methods  or  causes  will  stand.  At  first  so  over- 
whelming was  his  evidence,  so  entrancing  the  new  view 
of  life  that  many  of  his  followers  went  to  far  greater 
lengths  in  asserting  the  finality  of  his  ideas  than  did  Dar- 
win himself.  Against  these  claims  as  well  as  against  some 
of  his  own  ideas  there  was  bound  to  come  a  reaction.  This 
has  come  and  in  recent  years  there  have  been  many  death 
notices  of  Darwinism  written.  The  reader  should  not, 
however,  fall  into  the  gross  mistake  of  thinking  that 
opposition  to  Darwin  involves  opposition  to  the  concept 
of  evolution.  So  far  as  students  can  see  today  this  idea 
is  here  to  stay. 

32  KIXLOGO,  V.  L.     Darwinism  To-day,  p.  13. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  179 

As  Kellogg  says  in  the  first  chapter  of  "Darwinism 
To-day  " :  "  To  too  many  general  readers  Darwinism  is 
synonymous  with  organic  evolution  or  the  theory  of  de- 
scent. The  word  is  not  to  be  so  used  or  considered. 
Darwinism,  primarily,  is  a  most  ingenious,  most  plausible, 
and,  according  to  one's  belief,  most  effective  or  most  in- 
adequate, causo-mechanical  explanation  of  adaptation  and 
species-transforming  .  .  .  the  fact  is  that  the  name 
Darwinism  has  been  pretty  consistently  applied  by  biol- 
ogists only  to  those  theories  practically  original  with 
Darwin  which  offer  a  mechanical  explanation  of  the 
accepted  fact  of  descent.  Of  these  Darwinian  theories 
the  primary  and  all  important  one  is  that  of  natural  selec- 
tion. Included  with  this  in  Darwinism  are  the  now  nearly 
wholly  discredited  theories  of  sexual  selection  and  of  the 
pangenesis  of  gemmules.  .  .  . 33  The  fair  truth  is  that 
the  Darwinian  selection  theories,  considered  with  regard 
to  their  claimed  capacity  to  be  an  independently  sufficient 
mechanical  explanation  of  descent,  stand  today  seriously 
discredited  in  the  biological  world.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  also  fair  truth  to  say  that  no  replacing  hypothesis 
or  theory  of  species-forming  has  been  offered  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  selection  which  has  met  with  any  general  or  even 
considerable  acceptance  by  naturalists." 34 

For  present  purposes  we  need  only  say  that  Darwin 
was  primarily  interested  in  results:  the  later  students  are 
dealing  largely  with  origins.  The  newer  interest  is  in 
heredity  rather  than  evolution  and  this  topic  will  be 
treated  in  the  following  chapter. 

In  an  earlier  section  attention  was  called  to  the  rapid 
rate  of  reproduction  and  the  interrelations  of  the  different 

ss  KELLOGG,  V.  L.    o.  c.,  pp.  2  and  3. 
34  Ibid.,  p.  5. 


180         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

forms  of  life.  We  must  now  consider  some  of  the  evi- 
dence offered  to  show  that  there  is  a  selective  process  in 
the  elimination  of  individuals  or  types. 

It  is  readily  seen  that  no  selective  elimination  results 
from  the  tornado  which  kills  all  in  its  path  save  such  as 
chance  to  be  sheltered,  to  the  lightning  which  strikes  by 
chance,  nor  to  the  stream  which  suddenly  going  dry  de- 
stroys all  the  fishes  that  chance  to  be  therein.  It  must 
be  admitted  also  that  many  characteristics  of  animals  are 
negative  so  far  as  can  be  seen.  The  difference  of  an 
inch  in  the  length  or  a  pound  in  the  weight  of  a  cow  is 
meaningless.  No  one  claims  that  the  passenger  pigeon 
perished  because  it  had  twelve  feathers  in  its  tail  or  that 
the  mourning  dove  survived  because  it  had  fourteen.  If 
however  in  the  country  infested  with  the  tsetse  fly  cattle 
appeared,  whose  skin  was  so  thick  that  the  proboscis  of 
the  fly  could  not  penetrate  it,  the  little  difference  would 
be  very  important  —  the  thick-skinned  type  would  live, 
the  thin-skinned  be  killed.  We  can  find  some  actual  illus- 
trations. 

"With  silk  threads  Cesnola  tethered  forty-five  green 
praying  mantises  to  green  herbage,  and  sixty-five  of  the 
brown  variety  to  withered  plants.  He  watched  them  for 
seventeen  days  and  all  survived  unnoticed  by  birds.  But 
when  he  put  twenty-five  green  ones  among  brown  herbage 
all  were  killed  by  birds  in  eleven  days,  while  of  forty-five 
brown  ones  on  green  grass,  only  ten  survived  at  the  end 
of  seventeen  days.  Here  we  have  definite  proof  of  a 
selective  death-rate,  definite  proof  of  the  selective  value 
of  the  protective  coloration."  35 

"  Poulton  and  Saunders  fastened  600  pupae  of  the  tor- 
toise shell   butterfly    ( Vanessa  urticce)    to  nettles,   tree- 
's THOMSON,  J.  A.    Darwinism  and  Human  Life,  p.  199. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  181 

trunks,  fences,  walls,  and  so  on.  At  Oxford  there  was 
a  mortality  of  93  per  cent,  pointing  to  an  extremely  high 
elimination-rate,  and  the  only  pupae  that  survived  were  on 
nettles,  where  they  were  least  conspicuous.  At  St.  Helens, 
in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  the  elimination  was  92  per  cent  on 
fences  where  the  pupse  were  conspicuous,  as  against  57 
per  cent  among  nettles  where  they  were  inconspicuous."  36 

"  Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  for 
Experimental  Evolution  placed  300  chickens  in  an  open 
field.  Eighty  per  cent  were  white  or  black  and  hence 
conspicuous;  20  per  cent  were  spotted  and  hence  incon- 
spicuous. In  a  short  time  twenty-four  were  killed  by 
crows  but  only  one  of  the  killed  was  spotted."  37 

Very  different  results  from  those  just  cited  are  some- 
times obtained.  Professor  Moore  writes :  "  The  large 
tomato  worm  .  .  .  occurs  in  two  colors,  being  generally 
green,  almost  exactly  matching  the  tomato  leaves  and  stems 
on  which  it  lives,  and  more  rarely  brown  and  very  con- 
spicuous. These  caterpillars  may  be  observed  to  be  not 
infrequently  eaten  by  robins  and  cuckoos  and  pecked  to 
death  and  partially  devoured  by  chipping  sparrows.  Last 
summer  34  of  these  caterpillars  were  counted  on  a  row  of 
tomato  plants.  Of  these  32  were  of  the  green  and  only  2 
of  the  brown  phrase.  .  .  .  Later  in  the  summer  the 
number  of  these  caterpillars  was  observed  to  be  gradually 
diminishing  until  in  early  September,  when  they  had 
attained  their  full  growth,  the  green  ones  had  been  reduced 
to  18,  while  both  of  the  brown  ones  remained.  Further- 
more, it  became  apparent  that  no  less  than  16  of  the 
green  caterpillars  were  parasitized  by  an  ichneumon  fly 
to  whose  attacks  they  eventually  succumbed,  with  the  net 

36  THOMSON,  J.  A.    o.  c.,  p.  200. 

F.  S.     Social  Evolution,  p.  26. 


182         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

result  that  in  spite  of  being  protectively  colored,  out  of 
32  green  caterpillars  at  the  beginning  of  the  season  only 
two  —  a  number  just  equaling  that  of  the  unprotected 
brown  caterpillars  —  survived  to  pupate  with  the 
latter."  38 

It  is  possible  then  to  overemphasize  the  value  of  pro- 
tective coloration.  Other  observers  lay  stress  on  mimicry, 
the  close  resemblance  of  one  animal  to  another:  a  fly  to 
a  dangerous  wasp,  a  bug  to  another  disliked  by  birds 
because  of  some  very  disagreeable  odor,  a  moth  hardly  to 
be  distinguished  at  rest  from  a  dried  leaf.  Though  it 
may  not  be  possible  to  explain  all  these  phenomena  or  state 
their  meaning  they  must  have  some  significance.  More- 
over, we  know  that  some  human  beings  are  more  likely  to 
take  certain  diseases  than  are  other  persons  and  to  suffer 
more  from  them.  If  the  disease  results  fatally  there  may 
come  in  time  the  elimination  of  the  susceptible  stock.  It 
would  seem  then  that  natural  selection  is  a  real  factor 
in  life  even  though  its  whole  role  is  not  understood  and 
is  perhaps  exaggerated. 

Biology  and  paleontology  have  advanced  so  rapidly  that 
it  is  now  possible  to  outline  the  process  of  evolution.  In 
the  earliest  of  the  stratified  rocks,  the  Azoic,  there  are  no 
signs  of  life.  This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  no  life 
existed,  but  that  the  early  forms  of  life  were  simple  masses 
without  shells  or  bones  which  might  be  preserved.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  animal  scale  are  the  one-celled  forms 
called  protozoa.  Of  these  the  ameba  (.01  of  an  inch  in 
diameter)  which  is  common  in  vinegar,  will  serve  as  an 
illustration.  All  we  can  see  is  a  membrane  filled  with 
liquid  and  inclosing  a  nucleus.  The  ameba  may  slowly 
move  by  changing  its  shape.  If  it  comes  in  contact  with 

38  MOOBE,  E.  C.     In  Old  Penn.     Dec.,  1914,  p.  361. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  183 

a  particle  of  food  it  wraps  itself  about  it  and  gradually 
absorbs  it.  In  the  ordinary  sense  there  is  no  specialization 
of  organs. 

Higher  than  the  ameba  stand  the  animals  made  up  of 
many  cells  arranged  in  two  layers.  The  hydra  is  a  cyl- 
inder closed  at  one  end  where  it  is  fastened  to  the  rocks. 
At  the  open  end  of  the  cylinder  are  tentacles  which  by 
their  motion  cause  the  currents  of  water  to  enter  the 
cylinder  thus  carrying  food.  The  outer  cells  are  pro- 
tective, the  inner  layer  digests  the  food. 

Next  in  the  scale  are  the  worms  in  which  we  find  a 
series  of  cylinders  fastened  together.  These  segments  are 
alike  in  structure  and  function.  This  form  characterizes 
the  great  mass  of  invertebrates.  Crabs  and  lobsters  as 
well  as  beetles  and  butterflies  are  built  on  this  plan  and 
are  characteristic  of  the  Paleozoic  age. 

The  fishes  are  the  first  animals  with  backbones.  The 
earlier  types  were  covered  with  heavy  coats  of  mail  like 
the  gar  pike  of  our  inland  lakes.  The  shark  represents 
perhaps  the  basic  form,  a  great  mass  without  sharp  division 
of  head,  body  and  tail. 

The  next  stage  is  represented  by  amphibious  creatures 
which  have  gills  during  the  earlier  stages.  Typical  of 
this  stage  are  the  salamanders  and  frogs.  These  yield 
place  to  the  reptiles,  the  lizard,  bearing  close  resemblance 
to  the  early  type.  Snakes  are  but  degenerate  lizards. 
From  the  reptiles  it  is  but  a  short  step  to  the  birds,  the 
scales  being  modified  to  feathers,  the  fore  legs  to  wings. 
Here  too  transitional  forms  survive  like  the  apteryx  of 
New  Zealand,  while  the  penguins  and  ostriches  are  wing- 
less in  so  far  as  power  of  flight  is  concerned.  The 
Mesozoic  age  is  thus  one  of  transition. 

Lowest  among  the  mammals  are  the  Ornithorhynchus  or 


184         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

duckbill  and  its  relative  the  echidna  which  superficially 
resembles  the  hedgehog.  Both  these  lay  eggs.  The  next 
stage  is  represented  by  the  marsupials,  the  so-called  Tas- 
manian  wolf,  the  Australian  kangaroo  and  the  American 
opossum.  This  brings  us  to  the  true  placenta-bearing 
mammals  divided  into  many  orders  such  as  the  rodents: 
the  rats,  mice,  squirrels  and  rabbits;  the  carnivora:  lions, 
tigers,  wolves  and  seals;  and  finally  to  the  Primates,  at 
the  head  of  which  is  man.  This  development  of  mammals 
takes  place  during  the  Cenozoic  or  Tertiary  age  though 
clear  records  of  man  are  not  found  till  the  recent  or 
Quaternary.  Such  is  the  order  of  existing  life.  The  same 
story  may  be  read  in  the  rocks  where  too  are  preserved 
many  intermediate  forms  or  "  missing  links "  which 
prove  beyond  reasonable  doubt  the  gradual  evolution  of 
the  various  forms  of  life. 

There  is  no  reason  to  except  man  from  this  series. 
"  The  supreme  place  is  given  to  man  on  account  of  four 
and  only  four  characteristics;  these  are  (1)  an  entirely 
erect  posture,  (2)  greater  brain  development,  (3)  the 
power  of  articulate  speech,  and  (4)  the  power  of 
reason."  39 

Man's  nearest  relatives  are  the  anthropoid  apes  of  which 
there  are  four  groups:  (1)  marmosets,  (2)  tailed  monkeys, 
(3)  baboons  and  (4)  apes  (gibbon,  orang-outang,  chim- 
panzee and  gorilla).  The  gibbon  stands  erect  using  its 
long  arms  to  keep  its  balance  as  it  walks.  If  it  goes  on 
all  fours  the  face  is  parallel  with  the  ground.  In  the 
orang-outang  the  brain  development  has  so  changed  the 
position  of  the  head  that  on  all  fours  it  can  scarcely  bend 
back  its  head  far  enough  to  look  straight  ahead.  The 
chimpanzee  is  still  more  manlike  though  its  feet  are  still 

so  CRAMPTON,  H.  E.    Doctrine  of  Evolution,  p.  159. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN"  185 

like  hands.  In  height  it  is  often  five  feet,  or  more  than 
some  races  average.  Still  closer  to  man  is  the  gorilla. 
The  brain  of  the  apes  is  highly  developed,  averaging  be- 
tween 400  and  500  c.c.,  though  chimpanzees  have  been 
found  with  brains  as  small  as  200  c.c.  and  gorillas  with 
brains  of  610  c.c.  To  meet  human  demands  it  is  esti- 
mated that  the  brain  cannot  be  less  than  950  c.c.  It  has 
been  found  that  the  blood  of  the  higher  apes  is  almost 
identical  with  human  blood.  It  seems  obvious  that  the 
differences  between  men  and  apes  are  those  of  degree  and 
not  of  kind. 

A  second  line  of  evidence  comes  from  the  development 
of  the  individual.  All  animals,  including  man,  begin  as 
single  cells.  In  the  course  of  development  the  organism 
recapitulates  in  striking  fashion  the  evolution  of  the  race. 
The  microscope  shows  that  the  cell  is  much  like  the 
simplest  forms  of  life.  At  one  stage  the  human  embryo 
has  a  fish-like  heart,  brain,  muscles,  alimentary  tract  and 
even  gill  slits  in  the  sides  of  the  neck.  Later  on  it  closely 
resembles  the  embryos  of  the  rabbit  or  cat.  Then  it  bears 
close  resemblance  to  the  embryo  of  the  ape  and  is  covered 
with  a  coat  of  hair  which  is  shed  before  birth.  After 
birth  the  child  holds  its  legs  just  as  do  the  apes,  the 
spinal  column  is  a  single  curve  as  is  that  of  the  ape,  while 
in  the  adult  man  it  has  a  double  curve.  The  human  infant 
for  a  few  weeks  has  a  striking  power  of  supporting  itself 
by  hanging  on  a  stick.  The  hairs  of  the  body  have  the 
same  slant  as  do  those  on  the  apes.  Moreover,  the  various 
vestigial  organs  can  only  be  explained  on  the  assumption 
that  once  they  meant  something  to  man's  ancestors.  Thus 
we  have  the  remnants  of  a  second  stomach  in  the  vermi- 
form appendix,  the  muscles  that  move  the  ears,  traces  of 
an  extra  eyelid,  muscles  and  bones  that  once  formed  a 


186         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tail.  The  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  man  is  a  part  of 
the  organic  world,  the  result  of  a  long  and  slow  process 
of  change. 

From  time  immemorial  there  had  been  found,  in  various 
quarters  of  earth,  pieces  of  stone,  some  rough,  some 
chipped  to  sharp  edges,  some  polished  which  excited  much 
curiosity,  and  were  often  called  thunder-stones.  In 
Chaldea  they  were  put  in  temple  walls ;  in  Egypt,  strung 
about  the  necks  of  the  dead;  in  India,  even  today,  they 
are  to  be  found  on  altars.  They  were  considered  weapons 
used  by  the  gods.  "  During  the  Middle  Ages  many  of 
these  well-wrought  stones  were  venerated  as  weapons, 
which  during  the  '  war  in  heaven '  had  been  used  in  driv- 
ing forth  Satan  and  his  hosts  ...  in  the  twelfth  century 
a  Bishop  of  Rennes  asserted  the  value  of  thunder-stones 
as  a  divinely-appointed  means  of  securing  success  in 
battle,  safety  on  the  sea,  security  against  thunder,  and 
immunity  from  unpleasant  dreams."  40  At  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  Mercati  tried  to  show  that  they  were 
implements  of  early  man  but  Tollius  in  1649  suggested 
a  more  acceptable  notion  when  he  said  that  they  were 
"  generated  in  the  sky  by  a  fulgurous  exhalation  conglobed 
in  a  cloud  by  the  circumposed  humor."  41  In  1715  a 
pointed  weapon  of  flint  was  found  with  the  bones  of  an 
elephant  in  London.  In  1723  and  1724  Jussien  and 
Labitan  in  France  hit  upon  the  correct  explanation  and 
started  the  study  of  comparative  ethnology.  From  this 
time  on  there  was  an  increasing  number  both  of  discoveries 
and  of  men  who  dared  defy  popular  opinion  in  their  in- 
terpretations. Geology  was  denounced  as  "  a  black  art," 
"  a  forbidden  province,"  "  an  awful  evasion  of  the  testi- 
mony of  revelation,"  and  even  Cowper  wrote: 

40  WHITE,  A.  D.    o.  c.,  I,  p.  266. 
« Ibid.,  I,  p.  267. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN"  187 

"  Some  drill  and  bore 
The  solid  earth  and  from  the  strata  there 
Extract  a  register,  by  which  we  learn 
That  He  who  made  it,  and  revealed  its  date 
To  Moses,  was  mistaken  in  its  age!  "  42 

With  the  acceptance  of  the  evolutionary  philosophy,  the 
increase  in  geological  knowledge  and  the  rise  of  anthropol- 
ogy it  became  clear  that  the  beginnings  of  life  lay  further 
back  than  had  been  supposed  and  that  man's  own  career 
had  been  greatly  underestimated.  Even  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  pondering  over  the  civilization  of  ancient  Egypt 
decided  that  such  "  magnificence  needed  a  parent  of  more 
antiquity  than  these  other  men  have  supposed."  43 

Again,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Protestant,  Catholic 
and  Greek  Church  fathers,  research  continued  and  one 
by  one  the  scientists  accepted  the  newer  ideas.  The  most 
influential  convert  was  the  geologist  Sir  Charles  Lyell 
who,  in  "The  Antiquity  of  Man"  (1863),  gave  up  his 
old  position.  Direct  evidence  was  likewise  accumulating. 
The  opposition  was  really  destroyed  in  about  18  72  when 
George  Smith  showed  that  the  Assyrian  and  Chaldean 
legends  were  the  basis  of  the  Genesis  accounts. 

In  1835  at  Cannstadt,  Germany,  human  bones  were 
found  under  conditions  indicating  great  antiquity.  In 
1857  at  Neanderthal,  Germany,  were  found  broken  ribs, 
a  shoulder  blade  and  collar  bone,  upper  arm  and  thigh 
bones ;  and  the  upper  part  of  a  skull  which  not  only  gave 
evidence  of  age,  but  indicated  a  type  of  man  lower  than 
existing  races.  In  1866  at  La  Naulette,  Belgium,  was 
found  a  piece  of  a  jaw  again  differing  from  the  typical 
form  of  today.  In  1886  at  Spy,  Belgium,  remains  were 

«  WHITE,  A.  D.     o.  c.,  I,  p.  222. 
43  Ibid.,  I,  p.  254. 


188         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

discovered  which  had  peculiar  interest  because  the  Nean- 
derthal type  of  skull  was  associated  with  the  La  Naulette 
jaw.  By  this  time  Haeckel  had  described  a  type  of  man 
lower  than  existing  men  and  given  thereto  the  name  "  ape- 
man  "  (Pithecanthropus').  In  1891  in  Java  part  of  a  skull, 
a  tooth  and  thigh  bone  were  found  which  closely  corre- 
sponded to  Haeckel's  description  and  has  since  been  known 
as  Pithecanthropus  erectus.  This  man  had  an  estimated 
brain  capacity  of  1,000  c.c.  or  400  more  than  any  known 
ape.  In  1907  near  Heidelberg,  Germany,  a  most  interest- 
ing jaw  was  found,  unquestionably  human,  yet  resembling 
the  jaw  of  an  ape,  with  almost  no  chin  yet  with  the  teeth 
arranged  like  those  of  man.  In  1912  in  Sussex,  England, 
parts  of  a  skull  and  jaw  bone  were  found  in  glacial  de- 
posits which  again  indicated  an  early  type.  During  the 
last  decade  a  number  of  other  finds  of  early  man  have  been 
made  which  need  not  be  here  described. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  the  brains  of  these  primitive 
men  are  about  as  large  as  those  of  living  men.  The 
differences  of  the  face  and  lower  jaw  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  we  are  in  some  instances  dealing  with  a  species 
different  from  our  own.  Our  actual  knowledge  of  this 
great  process  is  still  very  meager.  Very  little  of  the 
earth's  surface  has  been  carefully  examined.  There  is 
every  reason  to  hope  that  some  day  we  shall  be  able  to 
reconstruct  the  tree  of  life  with  comparative  accuracy  and 
determine  the  time  factor  much  more  definitely  than  is 
possible  today.  Where  man  first  appeared  on  earth  is 
very  problematical.  The  earliest  forms  of  life  probably 
appeared  near  the  poles  for  there  the  temperature  was 
first  reduced  to  the  necessary  degree.  We  know  that  there 
was  once  a  continent  stretching  from  Iceland  to  Java  and 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  all  the  discoveries  of  early 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN  189 

man  are  in  Europe  and  Java.  In  America  there  is  no 
evidence  of  men  who  were  not  closely  related  to  the 
Indians. 

How  long  this  great  process  has  taken  we  can  only 
roughly  estimate.  The  geologists  claim  that  some  50,000,- 
000  years  have  passed  since  the  first  stratified  rocks  were 
deposited  and  recent  students  believe  that  man  has  been 
on  earth  upwards  of  a  million  years. 

The  history  sketched  in  this  chapter  should  teach  us 
a*t  least  one  lesson.  It  is  not  proper  for  man  to  set  limits 
beyond  which  his  knowledge  may  not  go  nor  to  attempt 
to  prevent  research  because  of  confidence  in  existing  belief. 
From  time  to  time  man  has  solved  intellectual  difficulties 
which  had  seemed  beyond  his  powers.  Recognizing 
frankly  then  that  many  problems  are  yet  unsolved,  it 
would  seem  wise  to  hope  that  increased  study  and  experi- 
ment may  furnish  the  answers.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
men  like  Bergson  should  appropriate  present  knowledge, 
show  how  it  improves  our  conception  of  the  universe,  and 
then  assume  that  further  information  can  not  be  had  and 
take  recourse  in  some  revamped  "  vital  principle."  Is  it 
not  better  to  follow  the  plan  of  Columbus  when  facing 
unknown  seas,  in  spite  of  the  terrors  of  the  deep  and  the 
fears  of  superstition,  and  "  Sail  on,  and  on,  and  on  "  ? 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

BERGSON,  H.    Creative  Evolution  (English  trans.).    1911. 
CLODD,  E.    Pioneers  of  Evolution.    1897. 
CRAMPTON,  H.  E.    The  Doctrine  of  Evolution.    1911. 
DARWIN,  C.    Origin  of  Species.    1859. 

"  Descent  of  Man.     1871. 

DRAPER,  J.  W.    Conflict  Between  Religion  and  Science.    1887. 
ELLIOTT,  G.  F.  S.    Prehistoric  Man  and  His  Story.    1914. 
HUXLEY,  T.    Evidence  as  to  Man's  Place  in  Nature.    1863. 


190         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

JORDAN,  D.  S.,  and  KELLOGG,  V.  L.    Evolution  and  Animal  Life. 

1908. 

KEITH,  A.    The  Antiquity  of  Man.    1915. 
KELLOGG,  V.  L.    Darwinism  To-day.    1907. 
LECONTE,  J.    Evolution  and  Its  Kelation  to  Religious  Thought. 

1891. 

McCABE,  J.    The  Story  of  Evolution.    1912. 
METCALP,  M.  M.     Organic  Evolution.    1904. 
MORGAN,  T.  H.    Evolution  and  Adaptation.    1903. 
OSBORN,  H.  F.    From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin.    1894. 
"  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age.    1915. 

ROMANES,  G.  J.    Darwin  and  After  Darwin.    1892-1897. 
SCHMUCKER,  S.  C.     The  Meaning  of  Evolution.    1913. 
STEWARD,  A.  C.  (Ed.).    Darwin  and  Modern  Science.    1909. 
THOMSON,  J.  A.    Darwinism  and  Human  Life.    1910. 
WALLACE,  A.  R.    Darwinism.    1889. 
WHITE,  A.  D.    Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology.    1896. 


CHAPTER  V 
HEREDITY 

Long  before  man  was  willing  to  admit  that  there  might 
be  some  organic  relationship  between  himself  and  other 
animals,  he  clearly  recognized  that  he  had  a  body  which 
was  maintained  and  reproduced  in  similar  fashion  to 
theirs.  Barring  a  few  illogical  exceptions,  he  believed 
that  each  animal  reproduced  "  after  its  kind,"  the  off- 
spring of  lions  were  lions ;  of  tigers,  tigers ;  of  men,  men. 
He  had  recognized  that  special  traits  sometimes  appeared 
generation  after  generation.  So  the  Romans  applied  such 
names  as  Capitones,  Labiones  to  families  characterized  by 
peculiar  heads  and  lips,  and  so  Tacitus  explained  the 
features  of  the  Germans  by  saying  that  they  had  an  un- 
mixed line  of  descent.  The  Israelites  had  even  under- 
taken to  control  the  color  of  their  cattle  by  exposing  them 
to  influences  considered  potent.  There  was  no  clear  idea 
of  the  nature  of  growth  or  of  the  facts  of  reproduction; 
but  no  one  questioned  the  fact.  Today  our  interest  centers 
in  the  attempts  to  understand  the  machinery  and  analyze 
the  methods  by  which  these  changes  are  produced. 

Our  evidence  on  these  points  has  come  from  three  dis- 
tinct and  yet  overlapping  methods  of  research:  (1) 
cytology,  or  the  study  of  the  cell;  (2)  the  breeding  of 
plants  and  animals;  (3)  statistical  study  and  comparison. 

We  have  already  seen  that  one-celled  plants  (bacteria) 
and  animals  (protozoa)  were  discovered  shortly  after  the 

191 


192         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

invention  of  the  microscope.  As  early  as  1651  William 
Harvey  asserts  that  all  living  organisms  come  from  eggs. 
By  1677  the  human  spermatozoon  is  described.  In  1665 
Robert  Hooke,  examining  a  section  of  cork  under  the 
microscope,  sees  that  it  is  made  of  "little  boxes  or  cells 
distinguished  from  one  another."  It  remained  for  Wolff 
(1759)  to  catch  the  idea  that  growth  resulted  from  the 
multiplication  of  these  small  units  or  cells.  In  1831 
Robert  Brown  discovered  the  nucleus  in  plant  cells.  In 
1835  Felix  Dujardin  discovered  protoplasm  which  is  to- 
day called  "  the  material  basis  of  life  "  and  which  always 
exists  in  cell  form.  In  1838  M.  Schleiden  and  Theodore 
Schwann  showed  that  plant  and  animal  cells  were  similar 
in  structure.  In  1861  Max  Schultze  said  that  "  a  cell 
is  a  globule  of  protoplasm  surrounding  a  nucleus  "  and 
in  the  same  year  Gegenbauer  showed  that  the  eggs  of  all 
vertebrates  were  in  reality  single  cells.  This  was  found 
to  be  true  of  the  spermatozoa  in  1865. 

As  a  result  of  these  discoveries  man  learned  that  all 
forms  of  life  start  as  single  cells  and  that  growth  results 
from  their  multiplication  through  a  process  of  division. 
But  many  lowly  forms  separate  when  they  divide  or  form 
mere  masses  or  aggregates  with  the  different  cells  seem- 
ingly identical  in  structure  and  function.  In  the  higher 
forms  there  is  a  specialization  of  parts.  Thus  we  find 
that  in  some  plants  roots,  stems,  leaves  and,  in  many 
cases  a  piece  of  the  root  separated  from  the  plant,  will 
grow  and  produce  a  complete  plant  again.  A  bit  of 
begonia  leaf  under  favorable  conditions  will  do  the  same 
while  a  post  of  willow  stuck  in  the  ground  often  becomes 
a  tree.  Man  takes  advantage  of  this  fact  in  the  growing 
of  many  of  his  choicest  plants  for  he  thus  increases  them 
more  rapidly  than  he  could  from  seed,  and  moreover  he 


HEREDITY  193 

knows  that  the  new  ones  will  be  exactly  like  the  older. 
In  many  cases  the  parts  of  the  plant  seem  to  have  lost  the 
power  of  reproducing  the  whole  under  ordinary  conditions 
at  least. 

When  we  reach  the  animal  world  a  change  in  this  regard 
is  evident.  It  may  be  possible  to  cut  some  worms  in  two 
and  thus  produce  two  worms.  But  the  worm  is  really 
a  colony  of  ringed  animals  little  dependent  on  each  other. 
A  somewhat  higher  form  of  animal  like  the  lobster  will 
grow  a  new  claw  if  one  is  destroyed,  but  a  marked  dif- 
ference from  the  behavior  of  the  begonia  is  already  to  be 
noted.  No  part  of  the  lobster's  body  will  produce  a  new 
lobster.  In  other  words,  the  higher  we  ascend  the  ladder 
of  life  the  greater  the  specialization  of  function.  The 
cells  of  the  human  skin  will  produce  skin,  but  nothing 
else;  nerve  cells  produce  nerve  cells,  nothing  else.  The 
human  body  is  then  composed  of  millions  of  cells  which 
have  the  power  of  reproducing  themselves,  but  which  for 
some  reason  are  unable  to  reproduce  the  entire  organism. 
For  this  function,  however,  nature  has  set  apart  the  germ 
cells. 

In  1883  Van  Beneden,  taking  advantage  of  aniline 
dyes  which  had  recently  come  into  use,  discovered  that  the 
nucleus  of  the  cell  had  a  definite  and  rather  complicated 
structure.  Thanks  to  the  steady  improvement  of  micro- 
scopes and  of  methods  of  photography  a  good  deal  has 
been  learned.  In  each  cell  there  is  a  nucleus  containing 
a  number  of  thread-like  substances  or  filaments,  which 
can  be  stained  and  thus  observed,  to  which  the  name 
"  chromosomes "  (color-bodies)  has  been  given.  These 
chromosomes  are  so  tangled,  are  so  delicate  and  perishable, 
that  it  has  proved  very  difficult  to  make  accurate  count 
of  them.  This  difficulty  has  been  overcome  and  we  now 


194         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

know  that  the  number  of  chromosomes  varies  with  the 
species,  but  that  it  is  constant  for  any  given  species  bar- 
ring an  exception  which  will  be  mentioned  later.  In 
certain  worms  the  number  is  as  low  as  four,  in  some  bugs, 
10  or  12;  in  the  rat,  16;  in  the  frog  or  mouse,  24;  in 
man,  48.  *  The  nucleus  is  surrounded  by  a  drop  of  liquid 
and  the  whole  is  incased  in  a  delicate  membrane  or  cell 
wall.  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  rapidity 
of  division  of  many  of  the  one-celled  organisms.  Under 
favorable  conditions  most  cells  divide  at  frequent  inter- 
vals, and  the  process  is  most  fascinating.  The  chromo- 
somes contract  and  then  split  lengthwise,  a  half  of  each 
moving  to  opposite  sides  of  the  cell  and  gathering  about 
a  nuclear  point.  Meantime,  the  cell  wall  begins  to  con- 
strict until  finally  the  separation  is  complete  and  there 
are  two  cells  instead  of  one,  enough  food  having  been 
absorbed  in  the  process  so  that  the  daughter  cells  are 
approximately  as  large  as  the  mother  cell.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  division  of  the  chromosomes  is  such  that 
each  daughter  cell  has  the  same  equipment.  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  this  does  not  apply  to  the  rest  of 
the  contents  of  the  cell,  the  cytoplasm,  where  the  division 
may  be  unequal  and  hence  a  basis  may  be  laid  for  the 
later  differentiation.  What  causes  this  division  no  one 
knows  and  concerning  this  mystery  Bateson  has  well 
said :  "  The  greatest  advance  I  can  conceive  in  biology 
would  be  the  discovery  of  the  nature  of  the  instability 
which  leads  to  the  continual  division  of  the  cell.  When 
I  look  at  a  dividing  cell,  I  feel  as  an  astronomer  might 
do  if  he  beheld  the  formation  of  a  double  star;  that  an 
original  act  of  creation  is  taking  place  before  me. 
Enigmatical  as  the  phenomenon  seems,  I  am  not  without 

,  M.  F.     Being  Well-Born,  pp.  34-41. 


HEREDITY  195 

hope  that,  if  it  were  studied  for  its  own  sake,  dissociated 
from  the  complications  which  obscure  it  when  regarded 
as  a  mere  incident  in  development,  some  hint  as  to  the 
nature  of  division  could  be  found."  2 

This  description  of  cell-division,  or  mitosis,  as  it  is 
called,  holds  true  for  the  body  cells  of  the  higher  animals 
as  well  as  for  the  one-celled  forms.  The  mitosis  of  germ- 
cells  is  more  complex,  and  differs  somewhat  in  the  two 
sexes.  The  common  opinion  that  they  come  into  existence 
-when  the  animal  reaches  physical  maturity  is  mistaken. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  appear  at  a  very  early  stage  in 
the  life  of  the  individual  and  in  some  of  the  lower  their 
history  can  be  traced  from  the  very  first  divisions  of  the 
fertilized  egg.  Even  in  mammals  they  may  sometimes 
be  found  in  the  walls  of  the  digestive  tract  in  early  em- 
bryonic development  when  they  move  into  the  appointed 
organs  as  they  appear.  The  significance  of  this  is  that 
they  are  not  produced  by  any  of  the  specialized  tissues 
of  the  body  but  are  derived  only  from  the  germ  plasm. 

From  the  time  these  germ  cells  first  appear  they  con- 
tinually divide  in  the  manner  above  described  and  thus 
increase  in  number.  The  sperm  cell  of  the  male  divides 
much  more  rapidly  than  the  ovum  of  the  female  and 
becomes  more  numerous  and  much  smaller.  By  the  time 
the  chicken  is  hatched  or  the  child  born  it  is  believed  this 
division  period  is  stopped  in  the  female  and  hence  that  the 
body  contains  all  the  eggs  it  will  ever  have.  The  germ 
cells  then  enter  into  a  period  of  growth  which  in  the 
female  lasts  till  the  end  of  the  reproductive  period.  Dur- 
ing this  time  of  growth  "  the  chromosomes  form  a  closely 
wound  coil  of  long  chromatin  threads,  and  when  these 
threads  uncoil  later  it  is  seen  that  the  chromosomes  have 

2  BATESON.  W.    Problems  in  Genetics,  p.  41. 


196         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

united  in  pairs;  this  process  is  known  as  synapsis,  or  the 
conjugation  of  the  chromosomes,  and  there  is  evidence 
that  one  member  of  each  synaptic  pair  is  derived  from 
the  father,  and  the  other  from  the  mother."  3  The  line  of 
junction  is  plainly  seen.  Finally  there  come  what  are 
known  as  the  "  maturation  "  or  "  reduction  "  divisions 
two  in  number.  In  one  of  these  divisions  (probably  the 
first)  the  chromosomes  which  had  previously  united  sepa- 
rate and  the  parts,  instead  of  splitting  lengthwise  as  in 
ordinary  mitosis,  go  into  one  or  the  other  of  the  daughter 
cells,  each  of  which  will  therefore  have  but  half  of  the 
former  number  of  chromosomes.  Then  follows  a  division 
of  the  common  sort.  From  each  of  the  original  cells  we 
now  have  four  cells  each  containing  half  of  the  standard 
number  of  chromosomes.  The  germ  cells  have  now 
reached  the  end  of  their  cycle  and  unless  united  with  one 
from  the  other  sex  are  either  absorbed  or  thrown  out  of 
the  body.  In  this  maturation  process  a  difference  be- 
tween the  two  sexes  becomes  apparent.  In  the  male  all 
the  four  cells  thus  formed  are  alike  and  may  function. 
In  the  female,  however,  in  the  first  of  the  two  divisions 
one  cell  is  of  normal  size,  the  other  is  small  and  is  known 
as  a  polar  body.  At  the  second  division  this  divides  as 
does  the  normal  ovum,  the  latter  producing  again  one 
polar  body  and  one  normal  ovum.  As  a  result  of  the  two 
divisions  in  the  female  we  have  one  perfect  egg  and  three 
polar  bodies.  Nature  is  apparently  producing  a  cell  with 
the  requisite  number  of  chromosomes  and  at  the  same  time 
conserving  the  valuable  cytoplasm  for  the  one  perfect 
ovum. 

The  ovum  is  spherical  in  form  containing  much  food- 
stuff or  yolk.     The  sperm  "  is  among  the  smallest  of  cells 

r,  E.  G.    Heredity  and  Environment,  p.  131. 


HEEEDITY  197 

and  is  usually  many  thousands  of  times  smaller  than  the 
egg.  In  most  animals,  and  in  all  vertebrates,  it  is  an 
elongated,  thread-like  cell  with  an  enlarged  head  which 
contains  the  nucleus,  a  smaller  middle  piece,  and  a  very 
long  and  slender  tail  or  flagellum,  by  the  lashing  of  which 
the  spermatozoon  swims  forward  in  the  jerking  fashion 
characteristic  of  many  monads  or  flagellated  protozoa."  * 

"  At  the  time  of  fertilization,  when  the  spermatozoon 
-touches  the  surface  of  the  egg,  the  egg  pushes  out  a  cone 
of  protoplasm  at  the  point  of  contact,  and,  lending  a  help- 
ing hand,  as  it  were,  draws  it  into  the  egg.  ...  In  a 
few  minutes  the  head  of  the  sperm  has  entered.  Its  tail 
is  often  left  outside.  The  head  absorbs  fluid  from  the 
egg  and  becomes  the  sperm  nucleus,  which  passes  towards 
the  center  of  the  egg.  Here  it  comes  to  lie  by  the  side 
of  the  egg  nucleus,  and  the  two  fuse.  The  walls  of  the 
combined  nuclei  dissolve  and  the  chromosomes  appear. 
Half  of  these  are  derived  from  the  father  through  the 
nucleus  of  the  sperm,  and  half  from  the  mother  through 
the  egg  nucleus."  5 

The  chromosomes  do  not  immediately  fuse,  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  they  keep  their  identity  through 
life.  The  fertilized  cell  quickly  begins  to  divide  and  thus 
inaugurates  the  growth  of  the  individual.  It  is  important 
to  note  that  from  each  parent  comes  one-half  of  the  neces- 
sary number  of  chromosomes  and  that  throughout  life 
every  cell  of  the  body  thus  draws  one-half  of  its  chromo- 
somes from  either  sex.  It  is  small  wonder  that  biologists 
now  are  inclined  to  consider  the  chromosomes  as  "  the 
carriers  of  heredity."  Just  what  role  is  played  by  the 
cytoplasm  of  the  cell  is  unknown  but  neither  the  nucleus 

4  CONKLIN,   E.   G.      O.   C.,  p.    15. 

5  MORGAN,  T.  H.    Heredity  and  Sex,  p.  39  ff. 


198         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

nor  the  cytoplasm  can  long  function  or  exist  without  the 
other  nor  can  the  one  create  the  other.  Moreover,  the 
cytoplasm  of  different  animals  is  as  distinct  as  are  the 
chromosomes. 

The  fact  that  the  sperm  introduces  half  of  the  neces- 
sary chromosomes  indicates  that  it  does  more  than  stimu- 
late the  development  of  the  egg.  Inasmuch  as  both  sperm 
and  egg  originally  possess  the  full  number  of  chromo- 
somes we  are  puzzled  to  explain  the  necessity  of  sex. 
Why,  for  example,  may  not  an  egg  develop  into  a  complete 
organism?  As  a  matter  of  fact  such  development  (par- 
thenogenesis) occurs  rarely  in  nature  and  has  been  brought 
about  in  the  laboratory  by  the  use  of  certain  salts.  The 
eggs  of  worms,  mollusks  and  even  frogs  have  been  stimu- 
lated into  growth.  In  some  cases  the  nucleus  of  the  egg 
has  been  replaced  by  the  nucleus  of  the  sperm  and  the 
cell  made  to  grow.  So  far  as  I  know  none  of  those  has 
been  brought  to  maturity  but  whether  this  is  due  to  some 
failure  to  provide  for  them  properly  or  to  some  inherent 
weakness  resulting  from  the  lack  of  fertilization  is  not 
known.  Among  the  bees  the  unfertilized  eggs  regularly 
produce  males,  the  fertilized  eggs  as  regularly  producing 
females.  Recognizing  frankly  then  that  there  are  many 
unsolved  questions  and  many  apparent  contradictions  in 
the  present  state  of  knowledge  there  is  a  growing  opinion 
that  the  trail  has  been  found  which  must  ultimately  lead 
to  an  understanding  of  the  process  of  reproduction. 

In  the  nineties  a  Dutch  botanist,  Hugo  de  Vries,  found 
some  plants  of  the  evening  primrose  (CEnothera  Lamarck- 
iana)  which  had  escaped  from  a  neighboring  garden  and 
were  growing  wild.  He  began  to  cultivate  them  and 
found,  to  his  surprise,  that  although  they  had  a  common 
ancestry  certain  new  types  appeared.  One  very  large 


HEREDITY 


199 


form  appeared  three  times  though  its  ancestors  for  three 
generations  had  been  the  ordinary  Lamarckiana.  In  1897 
the  self-fertilized  seeds  from  these  produced  over  450 
plants  which,  with  one  exception,  were  like  the  giant 
form.  The  exception  is  best  described  as  a  dwarf  whose 
seeds  reproduced  the  dwarf  form.  The  commonest  new 
type  produced  by  Lamarckiana  was  one  with  red  veins 
.and  brittle  stems,  which  appeared  66  times  and  also  bred 
true.  Here,  then,  were  new  species  apparently  spring- 
ing into  existence  in  a  single  generation  and  breeding  true 
thereafter.  The  existence  of  these  sudden  variations  had 
long  been  recognized  under  the  name  of  "  sports,"  but  it 
had  been  assumed  that  they  quickly  reverted  to  the  old 
type.  But  the  primrose  did  not  revert.  Hence  De  Vries 
came  to  the  belief  that  the  process  of  evolution  had  been 
a  series  of  sudden  changes  or  mutations  rather  than  the 
slow  unbroken  curve  pictured  by  Darwin.  The  contrast 
in  the  two  viewpoints  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
diagram. 


CONTINUOUS  VARIATION 


DISCONTINUOUS  VARIATION 


From  the  standpoint  of  final  result  there  is  no  difference. 
The  discovery  of  the  chromosomes,  however,  makes  it  pos- 
sible for  us  to  guess  at  the  cause  of  sudden  variations  and 
to  explain  their  persistence. 

Gregor  Mendel    (1822-1884),   an  Austrian  monk,  in 
1866  published  in  an  obscure  journal  an  account  of  a 


200         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

long  series  of  experiments  he  had  made  with  sweet  peas. 
Few  students  had  even  heard  of  this  work  and  it  had  been 
ignored  by  Nageli,  the  only  prominent  botanist  to  whom  it 
was  known.  In  the  light  of  later  discoveries,  it  suddenly 
assumed  great  importance.  In  the  year  1900  the  scientific 
world  was  surprised  to  learn  that  three  botanists,  De  Vries, 
Correns  and  Tschermak,  working  independently  and  in 
different  countries  had  come  to  similar  conclusions  and  had 
all  rediscovered  the  earlier  studies  of  Mendel. 

Mendel  found  that  instead  of  thinking  of  the  entire 
plant  as  a  unit  he  had  to  consider  each  plant  as  made  up 
of  various  units.  He  found  in  the  pea  seven  of  these 
unit  characters  on  which  he  could  depend:  (1)  the  form 
of  the  ripe  seeds;  (2)  the  color  of  the  substance  of  the 
pea;  (3)  the  color  of  the  seed-coat;  (4)  the  form  of  the 
ripe  pods;  (5)  the  color  of  the  unripe  pods;  (6)  the 
position  of  the  flowers  and  (7)  the  length  of  the  stem. 
Moreover  these  characters  appeared  to  go  in  pairs;  the 
seeds  were  either  smooth  or  wrinkled,  in  color  they  were 
either  yellow  or  green.  If  two  plants  differing  with  refer- 
ence to  any  of  these  points  were  crossed  all  the  individuals 
of  the  next  generation  showed  one,  and  only  one,  of  the 
two  characters.  To  the  character  that  appeared  he  gave 
the  name  "  dominant,"  to  the  one  that  disappeared,  the 
name  "  recessive."  Thus  Mendel  made  58  crosses  on  ten 
plants  and  found  that  yellow  was  dominant  over  green  in 
every  instance.  He  found  that  the  smooth,  round  seed 
coat  was  always  dominant  over  the  wrinkled.  Here  was 
a  puzzle.  What  had  become  of  the  character  that  did  not 
show?  Why  was  it  that  all  the  seeds  showed  only  one 
character?  These  hybrid  plants  are  allowed  to  self- 
fertilize,  and  behold  8,023  seeds,  of  which  6,022  were 
yellow  and  2,001  were  green.  This  it  will  be  noted  is  a 


HEREDITY 


201 


ratio  of  about  three  to  one.  Five  hundred  and  nineteen 
of  the  yellow  coated  seeds  were  allowed  to  grow  and  again 
self -fertilize.  It  was  found  that  166  produced  yellow 
only,  while  353  produced  both  yellow  and  those  that  could 
produced  yellow  and  green.  The  hybrids  of  the  round  and 
wrinkled  sorts  produced  5,474  round  and  1,850  wrinkled; 
those  of  the  tall  and  short  varieties,  787  tall  and  277 
short ;  in  both  cases  approximately  3  to  1. 

Correns  found  that  if  he  crossed  the  white  variety  of 
the  "  four  o'clock  "  with  the  red  variety  all  the  hybrids 
were  pink  but  that  self-fertilized  seeds  from  these  pink 
produced  white,  pink  and  red  flowers  in  the  ratio  of  1 :  2 : 1. 
At  first  sight  this  seems  to  be  different  from  the  results 
obtained  by  Mendel  but  in  reality  it  is  the  same,  the 
principle  being  brought  out  more  clearly  by  the  fact  that 
the  hybrid  is  of  different  color  than  the  pure  dominant. 
Before  seeking  the  explanation  let  us  examine  a  few  other 
cases. 


B 


B_\         I  ft   I  (B)          (W 

COLOE  INHERITANCE  IN  GUINEA  PIGS 

If  a  black  guinea  pig  of  black  ancestry  be  mated  with 
a  white  of  white  ancestry  all  the  offspring  will  be  black. 
If  this  hybrid  generation  is  interbred  the  next  generation 
will  show  three  black  and  one  white.  This  white  mated 
with  white  never  again  produces  black.  The  black  will 
be  found  like  the  second  hybrid  generation  of  Mendel's 
peas.  One-third  will  produce  only  black  if  mated  with 
pure  black,  while  the  other  two-thirds  if  interbred  will 


202 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


again  produce  three  black  to  one  white.  This  may  be 
shown  diagrammatically,  the  squares  representing  males, 
the  circles  females. 

About  1836,  black  and  white  Spanish  chickens  were  in- 
troduced into  England.  The  cross  of  these  two  was  a 
finely  mottled  gray  known  as  the  blue  Andalusian,  much 
esteemed  by  fanciers.  To  their  disgust,  this  "  blue " 
never  bred  true,  about  half  of  the  next  generation  was 
"  blue,"  the  other  half  black  and  white.  We  now  see  that 
they  were  dealing  with  a  hybrid  which  of  necessity  pro- 
duced the  original  types  in  a  certain  percentage  of  the 
cases. 

We  may  now  briefly  illustrate  what  happens  when  two 
sets  of  characters  are  crossed,  and  again  we  will  take 
Mendel's  peas,  recalling  that  round  is  dominant  to 
wrinkled,  yellow  to  green. 


Yellow 
Round 

Yellow 
Wrinkled 

Green 
Round 

Green 
Wrinkled 

Yellow 

Round 

Yellow 
Round 
1 

Yellow 
Round 
2 

Yellow 
Round 
3 

Yellow 
Round 
4 

Yellow 
Wrinkled 

Yellow 
Round 
5 

Yellow 
Wrinkled 
6 

Yellow 
Round 

7 

Yellow 
Wrinkled 
8 

Green 
Round 

Yellow 
Round 
9 

Yellow 
Round 
10 

Green 
Round 
11 

Green 
Round 
12 

Green 
Wrinkled 

Yellow 
Round 
13 

Yellow 
Wrinkled 
14 

Green 
Round 
15 

Green 
Wrinkled 

10 

This  gives,  as  will  be  noted,  a  ratio  of  9 :  3 :  3 : 1,  or  9 
yellow-round,  3  yellow-wrinkled,  3  green-round  and  1 
green-wrinkled. 

Mendel  was  keen  enough  to  see  that  the  explanation  of 


HEREDITY  203 

these  results  lay  in  the  nature  of  the  germ-cells  not  in 
any  outer  conditions.  He  could  not  give  a  complete 
answer  to  the  questions  raised,  but  he  did  bring  out  the 
fact  that  the  factors  causing  these  phenomena  were  sepa- 
rately heritable.  The  rediscovery  of  his  work,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  results  of  the  botanists  just  named  gave  a 
great  stimulus  to  the  investigation  of  heredity  and  such 
phenomena  are  now  called  "  Mendelian  "  in  honor  of  their 
first  discoverer.  Curiously  enough,  we  now  know  that  as 
early  as  1820  John  Gross  of  Devonshire,  seeking  a  new 
variety  of  pea,  had  observed  the  result  of  crossing  different 
types  but  had  never  followed  it  up  nor  discovered  any 
law  underlying  it. 

It  so  happened  that  this  newer  evidence  supplemented 
some  of  the  claims  made  a  decade  before  by  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  successors  of  Darwin,  August  Weismann. 
After  186 7  Weismann  had  undertaken  to  develop  a  sug- 
gestion made  by  Virchow  in  his  "  Cellular  Pathology  "  in 
1858.  Inasmuch  as  every  individual  starts  life  as  a  single 
cell,  and  inasmuch  as  these  cells  all  come  from  those  of 
earlier  generations  by  a  process  of  division,  Weismann 
became  convinced  that  it  was  to  the  germ  cells,  not  to  the 
body  as  a  whole,  that  we  must  look  for  the  facts  of  heredity 
and  variation.  He  therefore  came  to  think  of  the  germ 
plasm  as  something  independent  of  the  body  in  which  it 
was  housed  and  which  was  passed  along  generation  after 
generation  practically  unchanged.  He  thought  that 
within  the  germ  cells  there  must  be  "  determiners  "  of 
some  sort  for  the  various  parts  of  the  bodies  and  saw  that 
if  this  were  true  that  some  of  them  would  have  to  be 
discarded  or  else  the  union  of  the  male  and  female  cells 
would  double  the  number.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
soon  found  to  be  true. 


204 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


If  we  assume  then  that  there  is  in  the  chromosomes  a 
determiner  for  the  different  characters  and  do  not  forget 
that  each  individual  gets  the  chromosomes  of  his  germ 
cells  from  two  sources  and  that  these  are  segregated  in 
the  first  "  reduction  division  "  we  may  hazard  an  explana- 
tion of  the  above  phenomena.  Take  the  case  of  the 
guinea  pigs.  The  black  pig  came  of  pure  black  ancestry 
and  we  say  he  was  duplex  or  homozygous  in  so  far  as 
that  character  was  concerned.  The  white  pig  had  a  white 
ancestry  and  was  likewise  duplex.  Now  when  these  are 
mated  every  ovum  of  the  mother  carries  a  determiner  for 
white  and  every  sperm  of  the  father  one  for  black.  Hence 
all  the  offspring  are  simplex  or  heterozygous  in  so  far  as 
color  is  concerned,  and  are  all  black  inasmuch  as  black 
is  dominant  over  white.  When  these  hybrids  are  mated 
however  the  chances  are  that  out  of  four  possible  combina- 
tions black  will  unite  with  black  once,  black  with  white 
twice,  and  white  with  white  once.  Such  a  result  is  based 
of  course  on  many  matings  for  one  case  is  not  decisive.  A 
cent  thrown  in  the  air  may  come  down  heads  up  ten  times 
in  succession,  but  out  of  a  large  number  of  throws  heads 
and  tails  will  be  about  equal.  We  may  represent  what 
takes  place  by  a  simple  diagram: 


SUGGESTED  EXPLANATION  OF  COLOB  INHERITANCE  IN  GUINEA  PIGS 

Inasmuch  as  the  one  at  the  left  in  the  third  generation  is 
duplex  black  it  evidently  cannot  produce  white  if  mated 


HEKEDITY  205 

with  another  pure  black;  while  the  one  at  the  right  is 
duplex  white  it  cannot  produce  black  again  if  mated  with 
white.  Moreover  experience  has  shown  us  that  white  is 
a  recessive  and  will  not  show  if  there  is  a  single  determiner 
for  black.  The  two  in  the  middle  are  simplex  and  will 
therefore  produce  both  white  and  black  if  mated. 

Suppose  now  a  simplex  black  be  mated  with  a  duplex 
white,  what  will  be  the  result  ?  The  law  of  averages  will 
give  two  simplex  black  and  two  duplex  white.  If  duplex 
black  be  crossed  with  simplex  black  there  will  be  two 
duplex  black  and  two  simplex  black. 

Some  five  years  ago  the  writer  was  given  a  pair  of 
kittens,  brother  and  sister.  Both  were  short-haired,  but 
the  donor  claimed  that  some  of  their  ancestors  were  long- 
haired. It  is  known  that  short-hair  is  the  dominant,  long 
hair  the  recessive.  For  two  years  only  short-haired  off- 
spring appeared.  Then  there  was  a  litter  containing  one 
long-haired  kitten.  This  was  mated  with  its  father  and 
about  half  of  the  kittens  since  born  have  been  long-haired 
equal  so  far  as  hair  length  is  concerned  to  Angoras  of 
aristocratic  lineage.  Inasmuch  as  these  short-haired  cats 
are  duplex  recessives,  they  can  produce  only  long-haired 
kittens  if  bred  with  each  other. 

The  difficulty  in  these  cases  is  that  the  dominant-reces- 
sive cross  is  of  the  same  color  as  the  pure  dominant.  In 
the  case  of  the  "  four  o'clocks  "  bred  by  Correns  the  color 
is  different  and  the  nature  of  the  germ  cells  or  "  gametes  " 
is  revealed  thereby. 

Interesting  and  significant  as  these  facts  are  it  is  im- 
possible at  the  present  time  to  tell  how  far-reaching  the 
Mendelian  phenomena  are  or  what  practical  use  may  be 
made  of  them.  On  these  points  the  biologists  are  divided, 
some  holding  that  many  of  the  phenomena  of  inheritance 


206         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

are  of  another  order,  while  others  believe  that  as  soon  as 
we  know  the  facts  we  shall  be  able  to  interpret  on  the 
Mendelian  basis.  On  this  subject  Darbishire  concludes 
as  follows : 

"  In  the  opinion  of  those  who  accept  Mendel's  theory  as 
foreshadowing,  if  not  as,  in  its  present  state,  actually  con- 
stituting a  valid  theory  of  heredity  in  general,  the  number 
of  characters  concerned  every  time  a  fertilization  takes 
place  is  certainly  very  large;  it  is  nothing  less  than  the 
sum  total  of  the  characters  of  the  organism  in  question. 
According  to  this  generalized  Mendelian  theory,  the  organ- 
ism is  made  up  of  a  number  of  characters  which  are 
called  unit-characters,  because  they  are  transmitted  as  in- 
dependent units  in  inheritance.  These  unit-characters 
were,  in  the  early  days  of  Mendelian  speculation,  con- 
sidered to  be  associated  together  in  pairs,  but  .  .  .  the 
pair  is  now  regarded  as  consisting  in  the  presence  of  a 
particular  character  as  its  dominant  member,  and  the  ab- 
sence of  this  character  as  the  recessive  member.  But  this 
is  a  secondary  feature  of  the  theory.  The  essence  of  it  is 
that  the  organism  is  built  up  of  an  obviously  immense 
number  of  separately  transmissible  unit-characters,  the 
number,  limits,  and  nature  of  which  can  be  determined  by 
experimental  breeding.  With  regard  to  the  soundness  of 
the  theory,  all  we  know  at  present  is  that  it  applies  to  the 
relatively  small  number  of  characters  which  have  been 
dealt  with  in  Mendelian  studies.  This  knowledge  is  suffi- 
cient to  justify  its  application  to  practical  problems,  if 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  inheritance  of  the  heredi- 
tary characters  under  consideration  is  of,  or  approximates 
the  Mendelian  type.  But  this  knowledge  is  not  as  yet  by 
any  means  sufficient  to  warrant  even  the  hope  that  the 


HEREDITY  207 

future  problems  of  heredity  will  be  solved  by  its  aid."  6 
A  problem  arises  at  once  in  the  attempt  to  explain 
what  is  known  as  blended  inheritance  where  the  hybrids 
of  a  cross  do  not  split  up  into  the  original  characters  but 
preserve  the  composite  character.  This  is  said  to  be  true 
of  the  cross  between  the  border  Leicester  rams  and  Cheviot 
ewes  in  sheep.  The  cross  of  the  white  and  the  black  human 
races  is  a  mulatto  who  does  not  revert  so  far  as  known  to 
either  parent  color.  Nillson-Ehle  found  that  a  certain 
brown-chaffed  wheat  when  crossed  with  a  white-chaffed 
variety  yielded  a  brown-chaffed  hybrid  which  did  not  in 
their  turn  give  the  Mendelian  ratio  of  3  to  1  but  instead  a 
ratio  of  about  15  to  1.  Careful  investigation  seems  to 
show  that  the  answer  to  these  difficulties  lies  in  the  fact  that 
color  is  not  always  fixed  by  one  determiner  but  that  there 
are  several  which  may  be  separately  inherited  and  hence 
the  color  of  hybrids  may  vary.  Thus  Nillson-Ehle  found 
two  factors  for  the  brown  of  the  wheat  and  was  able  to 
explain  the  phenomenon  on  the  basis  of  a  dihybrid  as  il- 
lustrated by  the  chart  of  the  round  and  wrinkled,  green 
and  yellow  peas  given  on  page  202.  Davenport  thinks  he 
can  prove  that  the  black  color  of  the  pure  Negro  is  due 
to  two  double  factors.  Other  observers  have  reported  that 
seven  factors  are  involved  in  producing  the  color  of  the 
mouse,  and  eight  for  the  rabbit.  It  may  be  that  there 
is  no  true  blend  but  that  we  are  dealing  with  several  or 
many  determiners  in  all  cases  of  blends,  which  combine 
in  Mendelian  fashion. 

Of  all  the  questions  in  the  field  of  heredity  that  concern- 
ing the  determination  of  sex  has  probably  been  most  dis- 

6DABBISHIBE,  A.  D.     Breeding  and  the  Mendelian  Discovery,  pp. 
215-216. 


208         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cussed  and  all  sorts  of  theories  have  been  suggested.  The 
relative  age  of  the  parent  has  been  considered  significant 
or,  perchance,  the  sex  has  been  determined  by  the  parent  in 
best  condition  at  the  time  of  conception.  Diet  has  often 
been  thought  important  and  several  men  have  achieved 
considerable  fame  and  fortune  by  their  alleged  ability  to 
secure  sons  for  royal  families  by  treating  pregnant  women 
with  a  diet  of  sugar  or  some  other  essential.  It  now  seems 
probable  that  sex  is  determined  by  the  germ  cells  and  that 
outside  influences  are  of  no  avail. 

As  early  as  1891  Henking  discovered  that  two  sorts  of 
sperms  occurred  in  certain  insects,  the  difference  depend- 
ing upon  the  presence  of  an  odd  or  "  accessory  "  chromo- 
some in  some.  It  is  now  known  that  in  many  animals 
the  ovum  contains  one  pair  of  chromosomes  which  seems  to 
be  represented  in  the  sperm  by  a  single  chromosome,  or 
a  pair,  one  of  which  does  not  function.  In  some  animals 
the  extra  chromosome  is  in  the  sperm.  In  1902  Professor 
C.  E.  McClung  suggested  that  here  might  lie  the  explana- 
tion of  sex.  In  the  reduction  division  the  ovum  would 
always  contain  an  accessory  chromosome  while  half  of  the 
spermatozoa  would  have  one,  the  other  half  would  not. 
Hence,  when  fertilization  took  place,  the  zygotes  contain- 
ing the  accessory  pair  would  be  female,  those  having  only 
one  accessory  chromosome  would  be  male.  This  sugges- 
tion has  won  pretty  general  acceptance  though  much  re- 
mains to  be  done  before  all  doubt  is  removed.  In  the  best 
count  we  now  have  of  the  human  chromosomes  47  are 
assigned  to  the  sperm  and  48  to  the  ovum,  so  the  theory 
appears  to  hold  true  for  human  beings.  The  substantially 
equal  division  of  the  human  race  into  male  and  female  is 
thus  shown,  apparently,  in  accordance  with  Mendelian 
laws. 


HEREDITY  209 

Additional  evidence  is  offered  by  animals  like  the 
armadillo,  where  the  offspring  in  any  litter  are  always  of 
the  same  sex.  In  this  case  it  appears  that  only  one  egg 
is  produced  at  a  time  and  if  this  is  fertilized  the  off- 
spring are  either  all  males  or  all  females.  Identical 
twins  among  human  beings  are  likewise  always  of  the 
same  sex.  It  is  believed  that  they  result  from  the  fertili- 
•  zation  of  a  single  egg,  for  they  are  inclosed  in  a  single 
fetal  membrane,  whereas  ordinary  twins  come  from  sepa- 
rate eggs  and  have  separate  fetal  membranes. 

It  has  been  known  for  some  time  that  certain  char- 
acteristics though  passed  along  generation  after  genera- 
tion were  not  equally  divided  between  the  sexes.  These 
characters  seem  to  be  in  some  way  associated  with  the  sex- 
chromosomes  and  hence  have  been  called  "  sex-linked." 
Morgan  has  made  some  interesting  studies  of  the  small 
fruit  flies,  and  has  found  some  25  sex-linked  characters. 
The  eyes  of  this  fly  are  normally  red,  but  occasionally  a 
male  appears  which  has  white  eyes.  Morgan  found  that 
if  a  white-eyed  male  were  crossed  with  the  red-eyed  female 
all  the  next  generation  had  red  eyes  but  on  inter- 
breeding this  second  generation  half  of  the  resulting  males 
would  have  white  eyes,  the  other  half  red,  while  all  the 
females  would  have  red  eyes.  In  order  to  get  a  female 
with  white  eyes  it  was  necessary  to  cross  a  white-eyed  male 
with  a  female  also  descended  from  a  white-eyed  male 
and  then  half  of  the  females  would  have  white  eyes. 

Among  themselves  pure  barred  rock  chickens  breed 
true.  If  the  males  are  crossed  with  other  breeds  only 
barred  offspring  result ;  but  if  the  females  are  mated  with 
a  non-barred  breed,  approximately  one-half  of  the  off- 
spring are  barred,  the  rest  are  not.  Moreover  the  barred 
ones  will  be  found  to  be  males,  the  non-barred  females 


210         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

without  exception.     In  other  words  the  males  are  hom- 
ozygous,  the  females  heterozygous. 

"  Sex-limited  inheritance  such  as  this  finds  its  most 
probable  explanation  in  the  existence  in  the  egg  of  an 
extra  or  plus  element  never  found  in  the  sperm,  this  ele- 
ment pairing  with  the  sex-limited  character  in  the  reduc- 
tion division.  Thus,  in  the  barred  rock,  calling  barring 
B,  the  male  of  pure  race  is  clearly  BB  and  every  sperm  is 
B.  But  the  female  clearly  contains  only  one  B  and  can- 
not be  made  to  contain  two.  Perhaps  a  second  B  is  kept 
out  by  some  structural  element,  X,  the  distinctive  struc- 
tural element  of  the  female  individual.  Then  the  eggs 
will  be  of  two  sorts :  B  and  X.  Since  the  sperms  are  all 
B,  the  first  type  of  egg  when  fertilized  will  contain  BB, 
a  homozygous  barred  individual  and  a  male  since  it  lacks 
X ;  the  second  type  will  contain  BX,  a  bird  heterozygous 
in  barring,  and  a  female,  since  it  contains  X."  7 


Female  Male 


DIAGRAM  OF  SEX-LIMITED  INHERITANCE,  WHEN  THE  FEMALE  is  A 

HETEROZYGOTE,  AS  IN  THE  BARBED  FOWLS  X,  FEMALE 

SEX  DETERMINER;  B,  BARRING. 

Dorset  horned  sheep  crossed  with  the  hornless  Suffolks 
produce  hybrids  in  which  the  males  all  have  horns,  but 
none  of  the  females.  "  A  ram  will  develop  horns  with 
only  one  dose  of  the  horned  character  which  is  present  in 
the  heterozygous  condition  of  that  character:  but  the  ewe 
needs  the  two  doses  which  are  only  present  in  the  homozy- 
gous condition  of  that  character." 

i  CASTLE,  W.  E.    Heredity,  pp.  172-174. 


HEREDITY  211 

It  appears  then  that  in  many  cases  a  male  will  show  a 
given  character  if  it  has  one  determiner,  that  is,  is  sim- 
plex, while  the  female  must  be  duplex.  Why  this  is  true 
we  have  no  idea.  It  applies  to  human  beings  as  well  as 
animals  as  will  be  shown. 

Color-blindness  is  much  commoner  among  men  than 
among  women.  The  children  of  a  color-blind  man  mar- 
ried to  a  normal  woman  are  themselves  normal,  but  when 
the  girls  of  this  generation  marry  half  of  their  sons  will 
be  color-blind.  A  color-blind  woman  is  found  only  when 
a  color-blind  man  marries  a  woman  whose  father  was  color- 
blind. If  it  is  true  that  man  is  color-blind  if  he  is  sim- 
plex while  the  woman  only  when  duplex  we  should  ex- 
pect all  the  sons  of  color-blind  women  to  have  the  trait 
and  no  exception  to  this  is  known.  Bateson  was  able  to 
list  seventeen  cases  all  of  whom  were  color-blind. 

Among  other  sex-linked  traits  in  man  Guyer  names: 
"  hemophilia,  a  serious  condition  in  which  the  blood  will 
not  clot  properly,  thus  rendering  the  affected  individual 
liable  to  severe  or  fatal  hemorrhage;  near-sightedness 
(myopia')  in  some  cases;  a  degenerative  disease  of  the 
spinal  cord  known  as  multiple  sclerosis ;  progressive  atro- 
phy of  the  optic  nerve  (neuritis  optica}  ;  Gower's  muscular 
atrophy;  some  forms  of  night-blindness;  in  some  cases 
iclitliyosis,  a  peculiar  scaly  condition  of  the  skin."  8  All 
of  these  characters  must  be  considered  as  recessives. 

How  many  of  the  human  traits  follow  the  Mendelian 
principles  is  not  known,  but  there  is  reason  to  think  the 
number  is  large. 

"  Already  a  long  list  of  characteristics,  which  are  in- 
herited in  man  in  accordance  with  one  form  or  another 
of  the  Mendelian  principles,  is  known.  This  list  in- 

8GUTEB,  M.  F.     o.  c.,  pp.  64-65. 


212         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

eludes  certain  eye  colors;  certain  hair  colors  and  hair 
forms,  such  as  straight,  wavy,  and  curly;  certain  skin 
colors,  such  as  that  of  the  blond  and  the  brunette;  pale, 
fresh,  and  colored  complexions  in  the  white  race ;  stature, 
form  of  head,  and  nose  in  certain  races ;  various  deformi- 
ties and  defects,  such  as  short  fingers,  aborted  fingers, 
split-fingers,  split-foot,  cataract,  certain  hair  deficiencies, 
stationary  night-blindness,  certain  sex-limited  diseases  like 
hemophilia,  and  color-blindness;  and  certain  kinds  of 
deaf-mutism,  insanity,  and  imbecility.  Thus  even  at  this 
early  stage  in  the  study  of  human  heredity,  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  many  of  our  traits  Mendelize."  9 
Some  of  these  which  are  of  social  significance  will  be 
discussed  in  a  later  chapter.  Here  we  are  attempting  to 
state  the  case  only. 

In  the  human  eye  when  the  coloring  matter  exists  only 
on  the  inner  side  of  the  iris  the  color  is  blue  or  gray.  If 
there  is  also  a  layer  of  pigment  on  the  outer  side  of  the 
iris  the  color  is  brown  or  black.  Experience  shows  that 
brown  is  dominant,  blue  the  recessive.  Two  blue  or  gray- 
eyed  parents  can  never  have  brown-eyed  children  since 
there  is  evidently  no  factor  for  brown  on  either  side  of 
the  family.  If  the  parents  are  duplex  brown  they  can- 
not have  blue-eyed  children,  while  if  they  are  simplex 
brown  one-fourth  of  the  children  will  have  blue  or  gray 
eyes. 

Hair  color  and  hair  shape  seem  also  to  be  Mendelian 
traits  though  hair  color  is  due  to  two  pigments,  black  and 
red.  Dark  hair  seems  dominant  to  light,  and  curly  hair 
is  dominant  to  straight. 

We  must  now  ask  whether  these  unit  characters  are 
fixed  or  whether  they  may  be  modified.  De  Vries  thought 

»PABKEB,  G.  H.    Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  94-95. 


HEREDITY  213 

they  were  as  distinct  from  each  other  as  the  chemical 
elements.  Castle  and  others,  by  experimenting  upon 
guinea-pigs  and  hooded  rats,  have  introduced  by  artificial 
selection  what  they  regard  as  marked  modifications  of 
unit  characters.  Castle  feels  that  the  unit  characters 
themselves  are  probably  variable.  Bateson  puts  it  thus: 

"  Elements  exist  in  our  domesticated  breeds  (of  chick- 
ens) which  we  may  feel  with  confidence  have  come  in  since 
their  captivity  began.  Such  elements  in  fowls  are  domi- 
nant whiteness,  extra  toe,  feathered  leg,  frizzling,  etc.,  so 
that  even  hypothetical  extension  of  the  range  of  origin  is 
only  a  slight  alleviation  of  the  difficulty. 

"  Somehow  or  other,  therefore,  we  must  recognize  that 
dominant  factors  do  arise.  Whether  they  are  created  by 
internal  change,  or  whether,  as  seems  to  be  not  wholly 
beyond  possibility,  they  obtain  entrance  from  without, 
there  is  no  evidence  to  show."  10 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the  men  of 
Darwin's  time  put  great  emphasis  on  the  very  slight 
changes  in  the  organism  and  thought  that  the  "  sports  " 
as  they  called  the  marked  departures  from  the  normal 
had  little  meaning  and  little  chance  of  survival  inasmuch 
as  they  would  be  lost  in  the  average  if  mated  with  the 
ordinary  type.  It  is  known  today  that  many  of  the 
"  mutants  "  do  not  revert  but  breed  true  and  we  know, 
further,  that  it  is  possible  to  combine  different  units  from 
different  plants  and  perhaps  produce  a  plant  superior  to 
the  old  type.  Thus  the  English  wheat  has  been  greatly 
improved  by  combining  types  having  grain  which  possessed 
the  desired  qualities  with  other  types  whose  stems  were 
immune  to  rust.  The  beet  of  Napoleon's  time  contained 
only  about  3  per  cent  of  sugar.  By  various  crosses  we  now 

10  BATESON,  W.    o.  c.,  p.  90. 


214         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

have  beets  grown  commercially  containing  16  per  cent 
sugar  and  one  of  the  experiment  stations  reports  a  type 
with  29  per  cent  sugar.  If  this  last  can  be  made  commer- 
cially available  one  can  easily  imagine  how  valuable  it  will 
become.  Other  mutants  which  have  proven  useful  are  seen 
in  the  famous  Concord  grape  and  its  later  mutants, 
Worden,  Moore's  Early,  and  Pocklington.  Nectarines  are 
mutants  from  peaches;  apricots  from  plums.  The  Hub- 
bard  squash  is  a  mutant.  The  list  of  flowers  which  belong 
to  this  category  is  very  large. 

Objection  has  been  brought  against  mutants  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  all  hybrids  and  that  the  primroses  on 
which  De  Vries  worked  were  themselves  the  crosses  of 
several  American  varieties.  Whatever  the  truth  of  the 
charge  the  practical  value  of  the  combination  of  different 
characters  remains  and  moreover  the  mutants  often  breed 
true.  As  regards  any  given  trait  an  "  extracted "  in- 
dividual may  be  just  as  "  pure  "  as  one  of  unmixed  an- 
cestry. Indeed  this  is  one  of  the  most  important  points 
in  the  Mendelian  theory.  Thus  Darbishire  crossed  pure 
yellow  with  extracted  green  of  the  fifth  generation.  He 
got  139,817  seeds,  of  which  105,045  were  yellow  and  34,- 
792  (24.88  per  cent)  were  green.  These  green  seeds 
bred  just  as  true  as  the  pure  green. 

There  is  much  reason  to  think  then  that  this  concep- 
tion of  mutations  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the 
field  of  biology.  The  minor  fluctuations  about  a  given 
form  are  practically  constant  and  do  not  lead  in  any  direc- 
tion but  a  mutation,  which  seems  to  be  a  new  chromosome 
combination,  and  may  make  the  beginning  of  a  new  line. 
Furthermore  it  throws  the  emphasis  upon  the  nature  of 
the  germ  cell,  not  upon  the  external  appearance  of  the 
parent.  Punnett  says,  "As  our  knowledge  of  heredity 


HEREDITY  215 

clears  and  the  mists  of  superstition  are  dispelled,  there 
grows  upon  us  with  an  increasing  and  relentless  force  the 
conviction  that  the  creature  is  not  made,  but  born."  n 

As  was  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter  it  was  long  be- 
lieved that  experiences,  developments,  injuries  of  one 
generation  somehow  or  other  were  reflected  in  succeeding 
generations.  So  thought  Darwin  as  well  as  Lamarck. 
Darwin,  seeking  to  explain  this,  suggested  that  from  the 
parts  of  the  body  affected  went  little  bodies,  called  "  gem- 
mules,"  which  in  some  fashion  were  incorporated  in  the 
germ  cells.  In  current  terms,  it  was  thought  that  "  ac- 
quired characters  "  were  inherited.  To  avoid  confusion, 
be  it  noted  that  "  acquired  characters  "  are  changed  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  body  cells ;  that  in  some  fashion  these 
caused  changes  in  the  nature  of  the  germ  cells  so  that 
later  generations  were  affected.  The  evidence  for  this 
seemed  so  abundant  and  conclusive,  it  so  closely  corre- 
sponded to  common  observation,  that  men  no  more  thought 
of  questioning  it  than  did  those  of  an  earlier  time  ques- 
tion the  revolution  of  the  sun  about  the  earth.  Oddly 
enough,  it  was  this  very  point  which  was  attacked  by 
Weismann,  who  came  out  in  flat-footed  opposition  to  the 
popular  idea  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  for 
he  could  discover  no  way  in  which  body  cell  changes 
produced  any  effect  upon  the  germ  cells.  This  bomb  was 
exploded  in  1885  and  caused  as  much  excitement  in  biolog- 
ical circles  as  the  doctrine  of  evolution  had  produced  in 
the  ranks  of  the  theologians. 

It  seemed  easy  to  overthrow  this  new  heresy  and  many 
series  of  experiments  were  started  in  the  search  for  evi- 
dence. Among  the  best  known  were  those  of  Brown- 
Sequard  who  apparently  succeeded  in  producing  hereditary 

,  R.  C.     Mendelism,  p.  60. 


216         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

epilepsy  and  other  defects  by  a  series  of  mutilations  of 
guinea  pigs.  At  first  these  were  considered  conclusive 
but  the  same  experiment  repeated  by  others  failed  to 
produce  similar  results  and  hence  they  are  today  little 
regarded.  In  fact,  thirty  years  have  passed,  no  single 
clear  case  has  been  produced  by  Weismann's  opponents 
and  his  main  contention  is  held  as  established.  Again  we 
must  note  that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  his 
explanations  prove  correct  or  not. 

Weismann  stated  that  changes  in  the  body  cells  had  no 
influence  upon  the  germ  cells.  Most  people  little  realize 
what  a  mass  of  corroborative  evidence  lies  easily  at  hand. 
Every  one  knows  that  the  sudden  changes  produced  by  ac- 
cident or  disease  have  no  such  effect.  A  man  is  marked 
by  smallpox,  but  the  skin  of  the  children  later  born  is 
smooth.  The  broken  arm,  the  amputated  leg,  the  scar 
of  the  wound  or  burn  are  equally  without  result.  Sup- 
pose, however,  that  a  similar  condition  affected  many  con- 
secutive generations,  might  we  not  then  see  a  result  on  the 
offspring  ?  Among  various  groups  of  people  for  countless 
generations  the  teeth  have  been  knocked  out,  the  heads 
changed  in  shape  as  among  the  flat-head  Indians,  the  feet 
bound  as  among  the  Chinese,  ears  and  noses  pierced,  yet 
all  without  result  on  the  race  stock.  To  our  knowledge 
Semetic  peoples  have  practiced  circumcision  for  three  thou- 
sand years,  but  the  sacred  rite  is  as  necessary  as  ever. 
The  hair  and  beard  grow,  though  cut  for  ages.  Virgins 
still  have  hymens.  Child-bearing  seems  to  be  more  difficult 
and  dangerous  for  civilized  woman  than  it  was  for  her 
savage  ancestress.  If  all  such  changes  be  grouped  under 
the  head  of  mutilations,  it  seems  fairly  certain  that  they 
do  not  affect  later  generations. 

If  we  consider  these  changes  which  we  may  call  improve- 


HEEEDITY  217 

ments  or  achievements  the  result  is  the  same.  Language 
is  surely  one  of  the  most  important  acquisitions  of  the 
race.  Yet  after  all  these  ages,  no  child  is  ever  born  with 
any  mastery  of  any  dialect.  Each  generation  must  learn 
over  again  by  a  long  process,  both  painful  and  amusing, 
the  symbols  of  emotion  and  thought.  Furthermore,  there 
is  no  evidence  to  show  that  an  English  child  masters  that 
tongue  any  more  readily  than  it  would  the  Hottentot  if  it 
chanced  to  be  brought  up  by  some  family  of  that  tribe. 
The  lack  of  definite  evidence  to  support  the  popular  con- 
ception is  quite  as  evident  on  the  side  of  improvements  as 
on  that  of  mutilations. 

Rather  sharply  contradictory  to  the  ideas  of  the  scien- 
tific world  stands  a  large  body  of  popular  belief  resting 
on  impressions  and  careless  observations  but  hallowed  by 
age-long  belief.  It  is  generally  believed  that  the  body 
of  the  child  is  modified  by  the  activities  of  his  parents. 
How  this  is  done  is  not  considered.  The  fact  is  merely 
assumed.  Thus  the  child  of  the  blacksmith  is  believed 
to  have  stronger  arms  than  he  would  have  possessed  had 
his  father  been  a  school-teacher.  The  child  of  the  college 
graduate  is  thought  to  learn  more  easily  than  would  have 
been  possible  had  the  father  never  trained  his  mind.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  child  of  the  mountaineer  is  supposed 
to  suffer  in  comparison  with  his  relative  whose  parents  re- 
mained in  the  cities  and  went  to  school.  The  break-down 
of  the  laborer  under  bad  work  conditions  is  held  to  weaken 
his  children.  Hence,  these  effects  are  held  to  be  cumula- 
tive, increasing  the  burden  of  bettering  the  stock  of  suc- 
ceeding generations.  In  essence,  this  is  but  the  "  use  and 
disuse "  theory  of  Lamarck,  which  the  scientists  of  to- 
day so  greatly  doubt. 

We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion,  then,  that  there  is  in 


218         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  public  mind  an  inversion  of  cause  and  effect.  The 
question  of  the  child's  physique  or  his  progress  in  school 
turns  not  upon  the  occupations  of  his  parents  but  upon 
their  nature.  If  he  comes  from  stock  that  is  robust  phys- 
ically the  probabilities  are  that  he  will  show  similar  char- 
acters. If  his  parents  were  strong  intellectually  he  will 
probably  resemble  them.  The  reverse  is  true.  If  his 
parents  are  weaklings,  physically  or  mentally,  he  will 
probably  be  like  them.  The  role  that  opportunity  plays 
will  be  considered  later. 

One  group  of  men  who  have  had  considerable  oppor- 
tunity for  observing  the  facts  of  inheritance  still  insist 
that  the  training  of  parents  affects  the  offspring.  Stock 
breeders  point  to  the  increased  speed  of  race  horses  as 
conclusive  evidence.  It  is  stated  that  the  first  reliable 
record  of  a  mile  in  three  minutes  dates  from  1818.  Dur- 
ing the  century  this  record  was  steadily  reduced  until 
now  it  stands  well  under  two  minutes.  Redfield  claims 
that  he  can  show  that  the  colts  born  after  the  parents 
have  had  considerable  training  have  been  faster  than  those 
born  before  such  training  was  given.  He  also  claims  that 
this  is  true  of  human  beings  and  has  offered  a  reward  for 
evidence  that  rapidly  reproducing  families  have  shown 
as  high  capacity  as  those  in  which  the  generations  were 
longer.  It  is  to  be  noted  as  a  partial  answer  to  these 
claims  that  much  of  the  increased  speed  of  the  horse  must 
be  attributed  to  lighter  sulkies,  faster  tracks  and  to  im- 
proved methods  of  training.  Baseball  players  of  today 
are  superior  in  technique  to  those  of  a  generation  ago, 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  suspect  any  change  in  natural 
equipment,  nor  are  the  best  players  today  the  sons  of 
older  players.  Athletes'  records  have  been  constantly  re- 
duced but  the  record  holders  of  today  "are  not  descended 


HEEEDITY  219 

from  the  great  athletes  of  the  last  generation.  A  serious 
defect  in  the  stock  breeder's  evidence  grows  out  of  the  fact 
that  he  has  discarded  the  "  culls  "  or  unpromising  speci- 
mens. These  must  be  just  as  carefully  bred  as  the  others 
before  we  can  be  sure  of  our  facts.  Until  this  is  done  we 
cannot  learn  whether  the  biological  attitude  must  be  modi- 
fied or  not. 

Explanations  sometimes  prove  too  much.  It  would 
seem  that  the  theory  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  char- 
acters was  of  this  class.  Few  people  have  stopped  to  in- 
quire how  the  changes  in  the  body  cells  produced  the  al- 
leged changes  in  the  germ  cells.  Yet,  if  the  theory  is  true, 
there  must  be  some  mechanism  through  which  this  is  done. 
What  is  it?  There  is  no  nerve  connection  between  the 
germ  cells  and  the  rest  of  the  organism.  They  are  not 
produced  by  the  ovaries  or  testes  within  which  they  live. 
The  unborn  child  is  not  connected  with  the  body  of  the 
mother  by  any  nerves  or  by  any  strand  of  protoplasm. 
Only  as  the  blood  penetrates  the  protecting  membrane  is 
there  opportunity  for  influencing  the  body  of  the  child. 
How,  then,  are  the  influences  transferred?  Darwin,  as 
we  have  seen,  thought  that  little  particles  proceeded  to  the 
ovaries  and  were  incorporated  in  the  germ  cells,  but  there 
is  not  the  slightest  evidence  for  this  nor  can  we  see  how  it 
can  take  place.  One  who  claims  today  the  transmission 
of  such  influence  really  posits  the  existence  of  some  ma- 
chinery which  the  anatomist  has  never  found. 

With  few  exceptions,  present  biologists  accept  Weis- 
mann's  position.  In  spite  of  their  prejudices  they 
have  been  forced  to  this  by  the  unsatisfactory  character 
of  the  evidence  offered  for  the  alleged  cases,  by  the  uni- 
form failure  of  experiment  to  produce  the  expected  re- 
sults and  by  the  absence  of  any  machinery.  They  have 


220 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


come  to  believe  that  the  relation  between  the  generations 
may  be  shown  by  the  following  diagram: 


THE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  SUCCESSIVE  GENERATIONS 
(Modified  from  Wilson.) 

In  this  diagram  the  succeeding  generations  are  represented 
by  the  lower  line.  The  upper  groups  of  figures  represent 
the  individual  qualities  and  attainments  of  the  various 
persons.  Each  generation  is  derived,  however,  not  from 
these  personal  peculiarities,  but  from  the  germ  cells  which 
continue  with  little  if  any  change  from  one  generation  to 
another. 

More  positive  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  position  has 
been  gotten  recently.  "  A  female  albino  guinea-pig,  just 
attaining  sexual  maturity,  was  by  an  operation  deprived  of 
her  ovaries,  and  instead  of  the  removed  ovaries  there  were 
inserted  into  her  body  the  ovaries  of  a  young  black  female 
guinea-pig,  not  yet  sexually  matured,  aged  about  three 
weeks.  The  grafted  animal  was  now  mated  with  a  male 
albino  guinea-pig.  From  numerous  experiments  with  al- 
bino guinea-pigs  it  may  be  stated  emphatically  that  normal 
albinos  mated  together,  without  exception,  produce  only 
albino  young,  and  the  presumption  is  strong,  therefore, 
that  had  this  female  not  been  operated  on  she  would  have 


HEREDITY  221 

done  the  same.  She  produced,  however,  by  the  albino 
male  three  litters  of  young  which  consisted  together  of 
six  individuals,  all  black.  The  first  litter  of  young  was 
produced  about  six  months  after  the  operation,  the  last  one 
about  a  year.  The  transplanted  ovarian  tissue  must  have 
remained  in  its  new  environment,  therefore,  from  four  to 
ten  months  before  the  eggs  attained  full  growth  and  were 
discharged,  ample  time,  it  would  seem,  for  the  influence 
of  the  foreign  body  upon  the  inheritance  to  show  itself 
were  such  influence  possible."  12  All  the  young  were 
black.  Other  experimenters  have  secured  similar  results 
with  rabbits. 

Denial  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  must  not 
be  understood  as  a  denial  of  the  possibility  of  the  direct 
modification  of  the  germ  cells  by  environmental  influences. 
Indeed,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  conceive  how  one-celled  organ- 
isms vary  at  all  unless  the  outside  world  in  some  fashion 
affects  them.  It  is  perfectly  possible,  then,  that  the  pres- 
ence of  certain  chemicals  in  the  body,  say  large  amounts  of 
alcohol  or  the  toxins  of  disease,  may  directly  produce 
changes  in  the  germ  cells.  One  of  the  most  important 
experiments  yet  made  is  that  of  Stockard. 

"  Guinea-pigs  have  been  treated  with  alcohol  in  order 
to  test  the  influence  of  such  treatment  on  their  offspring. 
Male  and  female  animals  are  given  alcohol  by  an  inhala- 
tion method  until  they  begin  to  show  signs  of  intoxication, 
though  they  are  never  completely  intoxicated.  They  are 
treated  for  about  an  hour  at  a  time,  six  days  per  week. 
The  treatment  in  some  of  the  cases  has  now  extended  over 
.  a  period  of  nineteen  months.  The  animals  may  be  said  to 
be  in  a  state  of  chronic  alcoholism. 

"  Fifty-five  matings  of  the  alcoholized  animals  have 

12  CASTLE,  W.  E.    o.  c.,  35  ff. 


222         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

been  made,  forty-two  of  which  have  reached  full  term  and 
are  recorded. 

"  From  these  forty-two  matings,  only  seven  young  ani- 
mals have  survived,  and  five  of  them  are  unusually  small, 
though  their  parents  were  large,  vigorous  guinea-pigs. 
The  following  combinations  were  made : 

"  1.  Alcoholic  males  were  mated  to  normal  females. 
This  is  the  paternal  test,  and  is  the  really  crucial  proof  of 
the  influence  of  alcohol  on  the  germ  cells,  since  the  defec- 
tive offspring  in  this  case  must  be  due  to  the  modified 
spermatozoa,  or  male  germ  cells,  from  which  they  arise. 
Twenty-four  matings  of  this  type  were  made,  fourteen 
of  which  gave  no  result  or  very  early  abortions ;  five  still- 
born litters  were  produced,  consisting  of  eight  individuals 
in  all,  and  five  living  litters  containing  twelve  young. 
Seven  of  these  twelve  died  soon  after  birth,  and  only  five 
have  survived.  Four  of  the  survivors  are  from  one  litter 
and  the  fifth  is  the  only  living  member  of  a  litter  of  three. 

"  2.  Normal  males  were  mated  with  alcoholic  females. 
This  is  the  maternal  test.  In  such  cases  the  alcohol  may 
affect  the  offspring  in  two  ways  —  by  modifying  the  germ 
cells  of  the  mother  or  acting  directly  on  the  developing 
embryo  in  utero.  Only  four  such  matings  were  tried. 
One  gave  no  offspring ;  three  living  litters  were  born,  one 
consisting  of  three  premature  young  that  died  at  birth, 
while  the  other  two  litters  consisted  each  of  one  young, 
which  have  survived.  The  alcoholic  treatment  in  one  of 
the  last  cases  was  only  begun  after  the  mother  had  been 
pregnant  for  about  three  weeks. 

"  3.  Alcoholic  males  were  mated  to  alcoholic  females. 
This  is  the  most  severe  test,  both  parents  being  alcoholic. 
Fourteen  such  matings  gave  in  ten  cases  no  offspring,  or 
very  early  abortions.  Three  still-born  litters  were  pro- 


HEREDITY  223 

duced,  consisting  in  all  of  six  individuals,  while  only  one 
living  young  was  born.  This  single  offspring  from  the 
fourteen  matings  died  in  convulsions  on  the  sixth  day  after 
birth. 

"  The  young  that  have  died  in  the  experiment  showed 
nervous  disorders,  many  having  epileptic-like  seizures,  and 
all  died  in  convulsion. 

"Nine  control  matings  in  the  same  group  of  animals 
have  given  nine  surviving  litters,  consisting  in  all  of  seven- 
teen individuals,  all  of  which  have  survived  and  are  large, 
vigorous  animals  for  their  ages.  Two  young  from  non- 
alcoholic parents  died,  but  this  mother  also  died  two  days 
later.  Her  diseased  condition  doubtless  affected  the  suck- 
ling young. 

"  Forty-two  matings  of  alcoholic  guinea-pigs  have  given 
only  eighteen  young  lorn  alive,  and  of  these  only  seven, 
five  of  which  are  runts,  survived  for  more  than  a  few 
weeks,  while  nine  control  matings  have  given  seventeen 
young,  all  of  which  have  survived  and  are  normal,  vigorous 
individuals.  These  facts  convincingly  demonstrate  the 
detrimental  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  parental  germ  cells 
and  the  developing  offspring/'  13 

A  few  years  ago,  Paul  Kammerer  of  Vienna,  a  believer 
in  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters,  made  some  strik- 
ing claims  of  the  changes  he  had  been  able  to  produce  in 
the  midwife  toad  and  the  fire  salamander.  "  The  fire 
salamander,  which  lives  in  moist  woods  has  become  a 
favorite  of  mine.  If  kept  for  several  years  upon  yellow 
clay  then  his  yellow  markings  become  enriched  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  black  ground  color.  If  half  of  the  offspring 
of  individuals  which  have  thus  become  very  yellow  be 


C.    R.     Eacial   Degeneration    in   Mammals    Treated 
with  Alcohol.     Arch.  Int.  Med.,  Vol.  X,  No.  4,  p.  369  ff. 


224        THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

raised  on  yellow  soil,  the  amount  of  yellow  increases  and 
appears  in  broad  regularly  distributed  longitudinal  bands. 
The  other  half  of  the  offspring  if  grown  on  dark  soil  be- 
comes less  yellow.  .  .  . 

"  If  the  parent  generation  of  the  fire  salamander  be 
raised  on  black  garden  soil  after  some  years  it  becomes 
largely  black,  while  the  young  kept  upon  black  soil  have  a 
row  of  small  spots  on  the  middle  of  the  back.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  young  which  in  contrast  with  their  parents 
have  been  raised  on  yellow  soil,  these  spots  fuse  into  a 
band. 

"  If  we  use  yellow  paper  instead  of  yellow  soil  and  be- 
gin our  experiment,  as  we  did  before,  with  scantily  spotted 
individuals,  then  we  obtain  enlargement,  but  no  increase  in 
the  number  of  the  spots.  If  we  take  black  paper,  then  we 
obtain  a  reduction  in  the  size  of  the  spots  without  reduc- 
tion in  intensity  of  coloration.  The  young  bear  the  few 
spots  in  the  middle,  while  the  normal  young  from  the 
control  brood  in  mixed  surroundings  at  once  produce  an 
irregular  pattern  of  markings. 

"  Heavy  moisture  produces  an  increase  of  the  yellow, 
but  only  in  the  number  of  the  spots,  none  in  the  size  of  the 
spots.  Numerous  but  still  small  spots  may  be  observed 
in  the  progeny  put  back  into  the  less  moist  surroundings. 
Comparative  dryness  results  in  loss  of  brilliancy  but  not 
in  loss  of  size  in  the  spots.  The  same  phenomenon  may 
be  observed  in  the  progeny  which  is  again  kept  moist,  espe- 
cially when  compared  with  the  control  brood  which  was 
kept  under  uniform  conditions."  14 

Kammerer  is  convinced  that  he  has  here  a  case  of  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  It  is  however  possi- 

i*  KAMMEREB,  P.  Adaptation  and  Inheritance.  Annual  Report  of 
Smithsonian  Institute,  1912,  p.  435  if. 


HEREDITY  225 

ble,  assuming  the  reliability  of  the  statements,  that  this 
animal  is  in  some  way  so  susceptible  to  environmental  in- 
fluence that  slight  changes  therein  produce  changes  in  its 
development  or  else  that  the  germ  cells  are  directly  af- 
fected by  the  changes  in  the  light  and  thus  modified. 
Bateson,  however,  after  a  long  revfew  of  Kammerer's 
work,  says : 

"  I  have  felt  obliged  to  express  serious  skepticism  as  to 
the  validity  of  nearly  all  the  new  evidence  for  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  characters.  At  the  present  time  the 
utmost  we  are  bound  to  accept  is  the  proof  that  (1)  in 
some  parthenogenetic  forms  variations,  or  perhaps  we  may 
say  malformations,  produced  in  response  to  special  condi- 
tions, recur  in  one  or  perhaps  two  generations  asexually 
produced  after  removal  to  other  conditions.  (2)  That 
violent  maltreatment  may  in  rare  instances  so  affect  the 
germ  cells  contained  in  the  parents  as  to  cause  the  in- 
dividuals resulting  from  the  fertilization  of  those  cells  to 
exhibit  an  arrest  of  development  similar  to  that  which 
their  parents  underwent. 

..."  As  a  contribution  to  genetic  physiology  these 
facts  are  very  important  and  interesting,  but  I  cannot  think 
that  any  one,  on  reflection,  will  feel  encouraged  by  such 
indications  to  revive  old  beliefs  in  the  direct  origin  of 
adaptations."  15 

By  subjecting  the  eggs  of  the  common  potato  bug  to 
unusual  conditions  Tower  has  been  able  to  effect  changes 
which  seemingly  become  hereditary.  Other  experimen- 
ters by  using  X-rays,  radium  and  other  substances  have 
considerably  modified  certain  amphibia.  All  the§e  how- 
ever are  direct  modifications  of  the  germ  cell  and  are  not 
in  the  class  of  body  cell  changes  which  subsequently  are 

is  BATESON,  W.     o.  c.,  p.  234. 


226         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

alleged  to  be  reflected  in  the  nature  of  the  germ  cell. 

Without  assuming  a  dogmatic  position  on  the  subject  it 
seems  that  we  must  conclude  that  the  germ  cells  are  ordi- 
narily protected  from  outside  influences.  Some  of  the 
reluctance  to  accept  this  conclusion  is  doubtless  due  to  the 
realization  that  it  takes  away  the  basis  of  much  of  the  old 
moral  teaching.  If  goodness  and  badness  do  not  cause 
physical  success  or  deterioration,  what  does?  Into  this 
discussion  we  cannot  enter  now.  We  must  merely  state 
that  many  things  once  considered  part  of  the  physical 
heredity  are  henceforth  to  be  grouped  under  social  hered- 
ity; that  is,  are  environmental  problems.  Each  genera- 
tion transmits  to  the  succeeding  the  race-stuff  of  which  it 
is  the  temporary  custodian.  This  newer  knowledge  will 
require  some  restatement  of  our  ideas.  When  we  know 
that  the  single  cell  divides  into  two,  each  sharing  the  es- 
sential elements  of  the  older  cell,  which  shall  we  con- 
sider the  daughter,  which  the  mother?  Biologically  this 
is  our  relationship  to  our  parents.  They  are  our  elder 
brothers  and  sisters,  they  and  we  alike,  "chips  of  the 
old  block." 

In  earlier  days  it  was  assumed  that  the  germ  cells  con- 
tained a  miniature  of  the  mature  organism,  like  it  in  all 
details  save  size.  Now  that  we  know  something  of  its 
makeup  we  know  that  this  idea  is  too  naive.  Instead  of 
some  "  homunculus  "  in  the  human  germ  cell,  we  must 
imagine  a  great  number  of  units  of  some  sort  possessing 
the  possibility  under  favorable  conditions  of  developing 
into  the  adult.  It  taxes  our  credulity  to  see  how  the 
human  spermatozoon  whose  length  is  about  one-twentieth 
of  a  millimeter,  combined  with  the  egg  which  is  about 
one-fifth  of  a  millimeter  in  diameter  —  just  about  visible 
to  the  naked  eye  —  not  merely  may  develop  but  already 


HEREDITY  227 

contains  within  itself  all  the  elements  of  the  body,  but  such 
seems  to  be  the  case.  In  all  probability,  we  must  think 
of  the  chromosomes  as  great  chains  of  units.  Whether 
each  of  these  controls  some  special  part  of  the  body,  we 
have  today  little  idea. 

This  point  calls  attention  to  one  common  misconcep- 
tion of  the  newer  biological  viewpoints.  It  is  often  as- 
serted that  now  all  the  emphasis  is  thrown  upon  heredity 
and  the  influence  of  the  environment  is  ignored  or  denied. 
This  is  far  from  true.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  followers 
of  Darwin  and  Weismann  still  think  that  natural  selec- 
tion determines  which  of  the  various  modifications,  varia- 
tions, mutations,  or  whatever  they  may  be  called,  will  sur- 
vive. The  change  is  that  they  no  longer  think  of  the 
environment  as  causing  the  variation.  After  citing  many 
conflicting  illustrations  in  closely  allied  species,  where  in 
one  the  part  is  relatively  fixed  and  in  the  allied  form 
constantly  varies,  Bateson  says: 

"  We  cannot  declare  that  Natural  Selection  has  no  part 
in  the  determining  of  fixity  or  variability;  nevertheless 
looking  at  the  whole  mass  of  fact  which  a  study  of  the 
incidence  of  variation  provides,  I  incline  to  the  view  that 
the  variability  of  polymorphic  forms  should  be  regarded 
rather  as  a  thing  tolerated  than  as  an  element  contribut- 
ing directly  to  their  chances  of  life;  and  on  the  other 
hand  that  the  fixity  of  the  monomorphic  forms  should  be 
looked  upon  not  so  much  as  a  proof  that  Natural  Selection 
controls  them  with  a  greater  stringency,  but  rather  as  an 
evidence  of  a  natural  and  intrinsic  stability  of  chemical 
constitution."  16 

Up  to  this  point  the  evidence  gotten  by  the  study  of  the 
cell  by  experimental  breeding  has  been  considered.  There 

IB  BATESON,  W.    o.  c.,  p.  29. 


228         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

is,  however,  another  method  of  approach  which  must  be 
mentioned.  In  1846  the  Swiss  Quetelet  in  his  "  Letters 
on  the  Theory  of  Probability  "  applied  statistics  to  biolog- 
ical problems  and  offered  evidence  to  show  that  variation 
took  place  in  accordance  with  that  law.  This  method  was 
greatly  developed  in  England  by  a  cousin  of  Darwin,  the 
late  Francis  Galton.  Its  chief  advocate  today  is  Karl 
Pearson  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  name  of  the 
science,  biometrics.  Inasmuch  as  this  is  a  method  of 
studying  phenomena  and  involves  complicated  higher 
mathematics  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  discuss  it  exten- 
sively here  but  we  may  consider  some  of  the  results  claimed 
by  its  advocates.  Inasmuch  as  it  deals  with  averages 
based  on  records  of  large  number  of  cases,  it  indicates 
what  will  happen  on  the  average  rather  than  the  results 
of  any  particular  case.  Perhaps  the  best  known  of  the 
conclusions  of  the  biometricians  is  the  "  law  of  ancestral 
inheritance."  To  use  Galton's  words :  "  The  two  par- 
ents between  them  contribute,  on  the  average,  one-half  of 
each  inherited  faculty,  each  of  them  contributing  one- 
quarter  of  it.  The  four  grand-parents  contribute  between 
them  one-quarter,  or  each  of  them  one-sixteenth,  and  so  on, 
the  sum  of  the  series  H-%-%-%6  .  .  .  being  equal  to  1, 
as  it  should  be."  In  view  of  the  later  discoveries  that 
some  ancestors  seem  to  make  no  contributions  in  given 
cases,  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  law  shows  us  rather 
"  the  average  amount  of  resemblance  between  an  individ- 
ual and  particular  ancestor."  Galton  also  thought  he 
found  that  on  the  average  the  children  of  given  parents 
would  be  more  mediocre  than  the  parents  themselves,  that 
is,  would  approach  the  group  average,  and  this  is  called 
"  the  law  of  regression."  This  idea  may  be  shown  by  the 
following  table : 


HEREDITY 


229 


Parents 

Children 

Tall 

Medium, 

Small 

Tall 
Small 
Medium 

Many 
Very  few 
Moderate 

Moderate 
Moderate 
Many 

Very  few 
Many 
Very  few    IT 

As  Galton  puts  it :  "A  fundamental  distinction  may  ex- 
ist between  two  couples  whose  personal  faculties  are 
naturally  alike.  If  one  of  the  couples  consists  of  two 
gifted  members  of  a  poor  stock,  and  the  other  of  two 
ordinary  members  of  a  gifted  stock,  the  difference  between 
them  will  betray  itself  in  their  offspring.  The  children 
of  the  former  will  tend  to  regress,  those  of  the  latter  will 
not."  The  value  of  some  of  these  observations  will  be  else- 
where considered.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  note  that  some 
able  students  believe  that  valuable  generalizations  may 
be  gotten  by  statistical  methods.  It  appears  that  there 
are  some  discrepancies  between  their  results  and  those  of 
the  biologists.  Just  how  these  are  to  be  reconciled  is  a 
matter  for  the  future  to  decide.  For  the  present  we  must 
welcome  any  methods  which  give  promise  of  revealing 
facts  whether,  in  the  existing  state  of  knowledge,  we  can 
combine  them  or  not. 

Our  journey  has  now  brought  us  to  the  place  where  one 
of  the  greatest  stumbling  blocks  known  threatens  to  upset 
us,  or  divert  us  into  bypaths,  unless  in  some  way  we  can 
remove  it. 

Do  the  things  we  see  in  men  result  from  "nature  or 
nurture,"  to  use  Galton's  expression?  Are  they  due  to 
heredity  or  environment,  to  blood  or  to  breeding,  to  use 

"HERBERT,  S.     First  Principles  of  Heredity,  p.   163. 


230         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

more  common  terms?  We  can  avoid  much  useless  con- 
troversy if  we  realize  that  it  is  foolish  to  debate  the 
relative  importance  of  two  essentials  for  there  is  no  stand- 
point from  which  they  can  be  so  viewed  and  considered. 
Both  are  present  and  without  either  the  organism  is  un- 
thinkable. Water  and  air  are  alike  necessary  to  the  or- 
ganism. The  student  then  has  to  discover,  if  he  can, 
what  water  or  air  brings  to  the  body.  He  must  learn 
what  of  a  man's  equipment  is  due  to  his  inheritance,  what 
to  his  training.  The  two  are  constantly  fusing  in  such 
fashion  that  sharp  separation  even  is  often  extremely  diffi- 
cult. We  must  not  forget  moreover  that  the  student  in 
any  given  field  is  naturally  prone  to  think,  as  time  goes 
on,  that  the  factors  he  is  specially  studying  are  more  im- 
portant than  the  others.  Thus  he  tends  to  exaggerate  un- 
consciously enough  the  role  of  his  own  interests.  Further- 
more he  must  often  obtain  a  hearing  for  his  views  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  others,  and  this  is  not  always  easy. 
It  is  clear  that  the  popular  notions  must  be  modified  in 
many  ways.  The  older  conception  was  that  the  characters 
of  the  body  in  some  way  got  into  the  germ  cells  therein 
produced.  Now  we  know  that  this  is  an  inversion  of 
the  facts.  From  the  physical  side  it  makes  no  difference 
(usually  at  least)  what  the  ancestors  did,  but  it  makes 
tremendous  difference  what  they  were.  To  what  extent 
this  race  ancestry  is  modified  generation  after  generation, 
either  for  better  or  worse,  will  be  considered  in  the  next 
chapter. 

If  the  word  heredity  is  to  be  used  in  our  discussions,  it 
must  be  given  a  definite  meaning.  Originally  inheritance 
referred  to  the  property  received  from  the  preceding 
generation.  This  we  may  consider  its  legal  use.  If  this 
inheritance  of  property  is  so  arranged  that  the  bulk  goes 


HEREDITY  231 

to  the  eldest  son  it  may  easily  happen  that  great  social 
differences  are  soon  apparent  even  though  the  physical 
ancestry  is  the  same.  Because  a  child  is  born  into  a  given 
social  environment,  among  given  people  with  whom  he 
lives,  and  from  whom  he  gets  his  language,  customs  and 
standards,  we  say  that  he  inherits  them.  This  is  "  social 
heredity."  The  medical  man  frequently  uses  the  word 
"  hereditary  "  when  he  means  congenital,  which  is  purely 
a  chronological  term  referring  to  the  date  at  which  a  given 
character  appears,  and  in  this  sense  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  origin  of  the  characters.  The  medical  man 
further  offends  by  speaking  of  certain  diseases  as  in- 
herited when  he  means  only  that  they  are  transmitted 
to  the  child  before  birth.  The  venereal  diseases  are  caused 
by  specific  organisms  which  may  enter  the  body  at  any 
time  and  it  is  not  correct  to  speak  of  them  as  inherited. 
We  must  be  very  careful  then  if  we  would  avoid  ambiguity 
to  give  a  definite  meaning  to  the  term.  Conklin  has  sug- 
gested the  following:  "Heredity  may  be  defined  as  the 
appearance  in  offspring  of  characters  whose  differential 
causes  are  found  in  the  germ  cells."  Strictly  speaking 
we  do  not  inherit  eyes,  feet  or  arms  for  the  miniatures 
of  these  do  not  exist  in  the  germ  cell;  but  there  is  some- 
thing within  the  cell  which  causes  the  development  of  the 
parts  of  the  body.  In  this  sense  heredity  will  be  used  in 
these  pages  unless  otherwise  indicated. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

BATESON,  W.    Mendel's  Principles  of  Heredity.    1909. 

"  Problems  in  Genetics.     1913. 

CASTLE,  W.  E.     Heredity  in  Relation  to  Evolution  and  Animal 

Breeding.     1911. 
CONKLIN,  E.  G.     Heredity  and  Environment.     (2nd  Edit.)  1916. 


232         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

DARBISHIRE,  A.  D.  Breeding  and  the  Mendelian  Discovery. 
1911. 

DONCASTER,  L.  Heredity  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Research. 
1911. 

HERBERT,  S.    First  Principles  of  Heredity.    1910. 

LOCK,  R.  H.  Variation,  Heredity  and  Evolution  (2nd  Ed.). 
1909. 

LOEB,  J.    Artificial  Parthenogenesis  and  Fertilization.    1913. 

MINOT,  C.  S.    Modern  Problems  of  Biology.    1914. 

MORGAN,  T.  H.    Heredity  and  Sex.    1913. 

PUNNETT,  R.  C.    Mendelism  (3rd  Ed.).    1911. 

REDFIELD,  C.  L.    Dynamic  Evolution.    1914. 

REID,  G.  A.    Principles  of  Heredity.    1905. 

THOMSON,  J.  A.    Heredity.    1908. 

DEVRIES,  H.  Species  and  Varieties:  Their  Origin  by  Muta- 
tion. 1905. 

WALKER,  C.  E.  Hereditary  Characters  and  Their  Modes  of 
Transmission.  1910. 

WALTER,  H.  E.    Genetics.    1913. 

WEISMANN,  A.    The  Germ  Plasm.    1893. 


CHAPTEK  VI 
HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY 

No  two  human  beings  are  just  alike  and  yet  it  is  possi- 
ble to  divide  the  human  race  into  great  groups  which 
resemble  each  other  in  fundamental  characters  and  differ 
in  details.  Within  a  given  group  the  differences  between 
individuals  may  be  as  great  as  those  which  separate  the 
groups  themselves.  It  becomes  possible  therefore  to  sub- 
divide the  larger  group  into  many  smaller  groups  which 
possess  this  or  that  physical  trait.  We  call  the  residents 
of  the  United  States  "  Americans "  and  the  word  is 
definite  enough  for  ordinary  uses.  We  all  know  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  this  American  people  are  very  unlike, 
and  the  words  "  Whites,"  "  Negroes  "  and  "  Indians  " 
bring  very  different  pictures  to  our  minds.  In  like  fash- 
ion we  may  split  the  white  group  into  many  sections.  In 
making  such  a  classification  we  may  proceed  to  pick  out 
the  features  in  which  differences  are  apparent  and  merely 
describe  them,  or  we  may  consider  them  in  their  bearing 
on  the  state  of  society,  the  possibility  of  education  and 
civilization.  In  a  word  man  is  always  trying  to  explain 
social  differences  on  the  basis  of  physical  differences,  and 
the  attempt  is  both  fascinating  and  dangerous.  In  study- 
ing human  heredity  we  are  not  satisfied  then  to  describe 
what  we  see,  but  we  try  to  correlate  structure  and  achieve- 
ment. 

As  was  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter  it  is  now  known 
that  many  human  traits  are  inherited  on  a  Mendelian 

233 


234         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

basis.  From  the  standpoint  of-  society,  some  of  these 
traits  are  matters  of  indifference  in  the  main  at  least. 
We  may  know  that  curly,  dark  hair,  brown  eyes  and  dark 
skin  are  dominants,  while  straight,  light  hair,  blue  eyes 
and  pale  skin  are  recessives,  and  remain  unmoved,  for  we 
do  not  see  any  close  connection  between  these  characters 
and  ability.  We  are  familiar  with  all  these  characters 
and  have  repeatedly  seen  them  in  persons  of  all  walks  of 
life  and  grades  of  ability.  When  the  average  observer 
learns  that  there  are  families  characterized  by  hands  quite 
different  from  the  normal  he  is  at  once  impressed,  and 
wants  to  know  whether  these  peculiar  hands  will  not  in- 
crease the  difficulty  of  handling  tools,  of  doing  ordinary 
work,  in  other  words,  of  earning  a  living.  Such  hands 
are  rather  rare  and  few  people  probably  realize  that  they 
exist.  Yet  they  do  and  they  run  for  generations  in  a 
family  and  are  moreover  dominant  over  normal  hands. 
There  are  three  main  types,  those  with  an  extra  finger 
(poly dactylic)  ;  those  with  short  and  stumpy  hands  and 
fingers  (brachydactylic)  ;  and  those  more  or  less  webbed 
between  the  fingers  (syndactylic).  Two  of  these  are  il- 
lustrated in  the  following  diagrams :  * 


[~"|—  Males 
s-*\  —Females 

—  Sex  Unknown 

—  Still  Born  or  Died  in  Early  Infancy 


o 


*  Explanation  of   Diagrams :     Shaded  symbols  represent  individ- 
uals showing  the  character  under  discussion. 


-a 


w         u 

-0 

HD 

i—  n 
-n 

—  o 

tD  >-< 

S I 

"  "£ 

Q  rt 


S  g  03 

pq  .§  cs 

g<  o)  >-. 

O  ,c  as 


-a 
-o 


— n 

— n 
— o 

?~  r~->  \J 

t-n  S  -s  " 

^  &  2 

S  ^  g 

,-,     H  fl  S 

— Q    e  .S  s 
P-I 


-o 


r-,  H  a  "3 

~n  S  S  a 
-n  H 


•g»-c 
S  S 
g  a 


-O 


-o 
— n 
— o 


*| 

§  a 


5        «H 


a 


^ 

^ 


o 
0 


O 


»      O 

r^.    fe 


235 


236 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OP  SOCIETY 


o 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  POLYDACTYLISM  2 

Dwarfs  are  not  numerous,  and  yet  are  found  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  They  are  ordinarily  of  low  mental 
caliber,  and  are  unfitted  for  ordinary  employment.  There 
are  two  general  types.  The  achondroplasic  type  with 
large  heads  and  stumpy  limbs  has  a  grotesque  appearance. 
This  condition  is  dominant  over  the  normal.  The  ateliotic 
are  diminutive  specimens  of  ordinary  proportions  and 


•-r-0 


"HP0 


ACHONDROPLASIC  3 


ATELIOTIC  * 


INHERITANCE  OF  DWARFISH 

2  OUTER,  M.  F.    o.  c.,  p.  110. 

«,  «,  PEARSON,  K.     Treasury  Human  Inheritance,  Figs.  619,  708. 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  237 

sire  recessive  to  the  normal.  Both  conditions  are  heritable 
as  the  diagrams  show,  though  the  chart  of  the  ateliotic 
type  is  incomplete  and  does  not  make  clear  its  recessive 
character. 

Deafness  may  be  due  to  some  sickness  or  accident  but 
it  is  often  the  result  of  the  inheritance  of  some  peculiar 
ear  formation.  No  one  could  consider  deaf-mutism  as 
anything  but  an  undesirable  affliction.  It  was  known 
many  years  ago  that  the  condition  was  more  common 
among  the  children  of  affected  families  than  in  the  popula- 
tion at  large,  and  many  family  charts  have  now  been  made. 
These  show  that  the  condition  may  be  passed  on  even 
though  neither  parent  is  affected,  i.e.,  deaf-mutism  is  a 
recessive. 


***** 


INHERITANCE  OF  DEAF-MUTISM 

Hemophilia  is  one  of  the  sex-linked  traits,  as  before 
mentioned.  The  blood  does  not  clot  properly  and  hence 
even  a  slight  cut  may  be  dangerous  or  even  fatal.  In 
the  family  here  charted  the  first  six  sons  died  as  a  result 
of  this  fact.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  daughters  do  not 
show  the  condition.  They  will  transmit  it  to  their  sons 
but  not  to  the  daughters  unless  they  chance  to  marry  men 
who  are  also  carriers. 

6  PEARSON,  K.    o.  c.,  PL  X,  Fig.  62. 
e  Ibid.,  PI.  X,  58. 


238         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


°£* 


INHERITANCE  OF  HEMOPHILIA 

These  illustrations  clearly  indicate  that  a  number  of 
physical  characters,  which  must  be  considered  as  defects 
in  comparison  with  the  normal,  not  merely  exist  in  many 
individuals  but  are  passed  along  generation  after  genera- 
tion. The  list  is  by  no  means  complete.  We  have  all  seen 
albinos  who  are  characterized  by  an  absence  of  pigment 
cells  so  that  the  skin  looks  chalky  white  and  the  eyes  red 
owing  to  the  blood.  This  is  a  recessive  condition.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  affliction  known  as  hypotrichosis, 
hairlessness  accompanied  by  loss  of  teeth,  seems  to  be  a 
dominant.  Many  others  might  be  mentioned. 

Until  recently  we  have  assumed  that  these  conditions 
were  peculiar  to  the  individual.  Now  with  the  develop- 
ment of  biology  and  accumulation  of  material  from  many 
sources  we  are  coming  to  believe  that  direct  inheritance 
has  been  a  larger  factor  than  we  have  thought.  When- 
ever individuals  possessing  some  peculiar  characteristic 
have  settled  in  an  isolated  community,  geographically  or 
socially  sharply  separated  from  other  settlements,  we  are 
likely  to  find  that  these  characteristics  have  been  per- 
petuated and  are  much  more  common  than  in  other  com- 
munities. Thus,  in  America,  Martha's  Vineyard  was 
the  home  of  a  line  of  deaf-mutes  who  have  wandered  over 
the  country.  A  colony  of  "  bleeders,"  originally  develop- 
ing in  Sullivan  County,  Pennsylvania,  has  formed  new 

7  PEARSON,  K.    o.  c.,  PI.  XXXV,  Fig.  392. 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  239 

settlements  in  Minnesota,  South  Dakota  and  California. 
Long  Island  and  Fairfield  County,  Connecticut,  were  the 
original  seats  of  much  of  the  Huntington's  chorea.  As 
our  social  surveys  are  multiplied  we  find  evidence  that 
such  minor  groupings  are  far  more  common  than  was 
realized. 

Important  as  we  may  consider  the  above  mentioned  de- 
fects we  will  all  admit  that  mental  defects  are  much  more 
serious  from  the  standpoint  of  society,  particularly  if  it 
appears  that  they  are  rooted  in  heredity. 

Unfortunately  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  our  in- 
formation is  based  almost  wholly  upon  the  actions  of 
men,  and  we  know  almost  nothing  of  the  nature  or  sig- 
nificance of  brain  differences.  It  seems  that  these  things 
which  we  consider  as  attributes  of  man,  memory  and  the 
higher  forms  of  thought,  depend  upon  "  The  human  cere- 
bral cortex  ...  a  superficial  layer  of  the  brain  with  a 
thickness  varying  from  one  and  a  half  to  five  millimeters 
and  covering  an  average  of  2,352  centimeters  "  (about  one 
and  a  half  square  feet).  This  cortex  is  estimated  to  weigh 
about  658  grammes.  It  is  composed  chiefly  of  blood  ves- 
sels, supporting  tissues  and  nerve  cells.  The  blood  vessels 
and  supporting  tissues  are  merely  mechanical  accompani- 
ments of  an  apparatus,  the  real  functions  of  which  are 
carried  qn  by  the  nerve  cells.  These  cells  have  been  care- 
fully studied,  their  arrangement  and  distribution  made 
out,  and  it  is  estimated  that  in  a  single  cortex  their  num- 
ber is  not  far  from  9,200,000,000.  Notwithstanding  this 
prodigious  number,  these  cells  and  their  processes  repre- 
sent only  two  per  cent  of  the  total  weight  of  the  cortex; 
in  other  words,  the  cortical  nerve  cells  and  their  processes 
in  the  average  man  weigh  about  thirteen  grammes.  This 
amount  represents  a  little  less  than  a  cubic  inch  of  ma- 


240         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

terial,  or  to  be  more  accurate,  it  will  just  fill  a  cube  whose 
edge  is  2.35  centimeters.  In  a  man  who  weighs  ap- 
proximately one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  this  amount 
of  substance  would  represent  about  one  five-thousandth 
of  his  total  weight,  yet  this  very  small  proportion  of  his 
body  serves  him  as  the  material  basis  for  a  whole  life  of 
intelligent  activity  and  is  the  part  of  the  nervous  system 
chiefly  concerned  in  yielding  that  almost  impalpable  prod- 
uct, human  personality."  8 

To  some  extent  the  different  parts  of  the  cortex  have 
control  over  different  reactions  and  hence  differences  in 
ability  may  rest  on  different  organization  of  the  cortex 
and  may  be  passed  along  from  one  generation  to  another. 
There  are  many  unsolved  questions  here  and  about  all  we 
can  be  sure  of  is  "  no  brain,  no  mind."  The  new-born 
child  may  have  all  the  brain  cells  it  will  use,  but  the  con- 
necting links  must  be  developed;  or  is  it  better  to  say, 
perhaps,  that  the  child  must  learn  to  use  the  connecting 
links  and  that  this  process  is  what  we  mean  when  we 
speak  of  "  the  formation  of  habits  "  ?  This  cortex  is  eas- 
ily injured  and  hence  the  checking  of  development  may 
come  therefrom  or  via  the  road  of  heredity.  All  we  need 
remember  here  is  that  the  man  is  not  merely  an  enlarged 
edition  of  the  child.  An  adult  with  the  proportions  of  a 
child  would  be  a  caricature.  Our  minds  as  well  as  our 
bodies  are  changed  by  the  experiences  of  life.  We  are  in 
part  what  we  are  today  because  of  the  things  we  have 
done. 

A  further  difficulty  arises  from  the  belief,  held  even 
today,  that  the  body  is  but  the  house  inhabited  by  a  spirit 
which  once  entered  into  it  and  will  some  day  depart  again. 
In  older  days  it  was  eVen  held  that  some  foreign  spirit 

«PABKEB,  G.  H.     Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  34-35. 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  241 

might  enter  in  and  take  possession  if  the  original  in- 
habitant was  found  absent,  or  might  even  dispossess  the 
original  owner.  Hence  the  actions  of  a  person  might  be 
attributed  to  possession  by  "  evil  spirits,"  and  that  chap- 
ter of  human  history  dealing  with  demoniacal  possession 
is  both  interesting  and  harrowing. 

It  has  long  been  seen  that  actions  of  men  were  in  some 
way  dependent  upon  circumstances,  upon  education  and 
upon  health,  hence  such  words  as  "  afflicted  "  or  "  gifted  " 
are  rather  vague.  There  has  come,  nevertheless,  recogni- 
tion that  the  human  race  grades  from  those  of  the  lowest 
mental  caliber  to  those  of  the  highest.  Using  present 
terms  we  may  roughly  classify  men  into  the  following 
groups :  • 

The  Subnormal  —  The  Feeble-minded :  Idiot,  Imbecile, 
Moron. 

Normal-minded  —  The  Common  People. 

Supernormal  —  The  Distinguished,  the  Genius. 

Before  we  attempt  to  consider  these  separate  classes  we 
must  again  emphasize  the  difference  between  endowment 
and  attainment.  Though  we  cannot  put  our  hands  upon 
the  actual  physical  traits,  we  know  that  men  differ  by 
nature  as  well  as  by  nurture.  In  every-day  life  it  may  be 
impossible  to  determine  the  actual  contribution  of  these 
two  factors.  This  backward  child  in  the  schoolroom  may 
have  a  normal  mind  which  has  been  poorly  trained,  or  it 
may  be  weak  through  lack  of  food.  It  may  be  suffering 
from  disease,  or  it  may  have  been  crippled  by  some  acci- 
dent. The  distinguished  man  may  be  one  of  only  ordi- 
nary capacity  who  has  been  unusually  well  trained,  or  has 
had  the  superior  opportunities  which  wealth  and  social 
position  bring,  or  who  accidentally  has  done  that  which 
has  brought  renown ;  or  he  may  be  mentally  far  above  the 


242         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

average.  Suspending  our  judgment  on  these  questions 
for  a  time,  it  is  not  hard  to  see  that  in  actual  life  the  un- 
successful are  likely  to  drift  into  public  institutions  and 
become  public  charges,  while  the  successful  rise  into  public 
esteem.  Nevertheless,  capacity  is  not  necessarily  shown 
by  position.  The  generals  who  shine  on  the  parade  ground 
not  infrequently  have  to  be  replaced  in  time  of  war  by 
others  whose  talents  have  not  been  highly  esteemed  ere 
the  army  wins  any  notable  victories. 

Recalling  our  ignorance  of  the  brain  and  the  necessity 
of  depending  upon  actions  for  evidence,  it  becomes  plain 
why  we  had  to  wait  for  a  system  of  compulsory  general 
education,  which  involved  sending  the  mass  of  the  children 
through  a  given  program  and  the  attempt  to  do  this  at 
a  given  rate,  before  we  could  even  devise  any  tests  of 
mental  growth  and  ability.  The  best  that  we  have  were 
worked  out  after  very  careful  study  of  French  children  by 
Binet.  They  are  designed  to  show  us  the  mental  age  of 
the  child.  A  boy  of  ten,  let  us  say,  can  pass  the  tests 
ordinarily  done  by  a  child  of  eight.  We  say  then  that 
his  mental  age  is  eight.  This  tells  us  nothing  of  the 
cause  of  his  retardation.  In  actual  use  these  tests  have 
proven  very  satisfactory  up  to  the  age  of  12  or  13.  Many 
have  objected  to  them  on  the  ground  that  adults  could  not 
pass  the  tests,  but  the  objection  is  not  well  taken.  By  the 
same  token  few  college  professors  could  pass  the  fresh- 
man entrance  examinations,  yet  their  development  is  evi- 
dently greater  than  that  of  freshmen.  That  these  tests 
in  the  hands  of  the  inexperienced  have  often  been  used 
to  prove  feeble-mindedness  is  unfortunately  true,  but  the 
trouble  lies  in  the  observers,  not  in  the  tests.  It  may  be 
true  that  when  a  child  is  found  over  two  years  behind  those 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  243 

of  his  age  he  is  feeble-minded,  but  this  must  be  demon- 
strated. 

For  about  a  century  we  have  been  gathering  into  spe- 
cial institutions  the  feeble-minded.  Regardless  of  actual 
age  they  are  always  children  no  matter  whether  they  have 
grown  up  in  the  neglect  of  the  back  woods  or  in  some 
almshouse  or  have  been  given  the  best  of  medical  care  and 
educational  opportunities.  They  are  different  from 
normal  children  in  their  rate  of  growth,  in  their  death  rate, 
in  the  coordination  of  movements  and  in  facial  expres- 
sion. In  2,801  cases  in  institutions  in  America  the  age 
at  death  was  20.3  for  idiots,  22.9  for  imbeciles  and  28.5 
for  morons.  They  may  have  remarkable  memory,  but 
it  is  a  memory  of  unconnected  and  unrelated  things,  as 
for  instance  sentences  from  a  foreign  tongue  of  which 
they  have  no  understanding.  They  may  have  consider- 
able musical  ability  as  did  the  ex-slave  Blind  Tom,  and  yet 
be  unable  to  master  the  third  reader.  They  may  have 
the  strength  of  the  adult  and  be  able  to  do  all  sorts  of 
simple  tasks  and  yet  be  unfit  to  care  for  themselves. 

In  the  earlier  years  only  the  lower  grades  were  recog- 
nized. These  in  the  lowest  group  are  known  as  idiots 
who  remain  mentally  under  the  age  of  two;  that  is,  they 
do  not  learn  to  talk,  though  the  ablest  among  them  may 
use  some  words.  This  group  is,  of  course,  wholly  depend- 
ent upon  their  keepers  and  often  cannot  care  for  them- 
selves in  the  simplest  of  bodily  functions.  They  vegetate 
rather  than  live. 

Above  the  idiot  is  the  imbecile,  who  ranges  in  mental 
age  from  three  to  seven  with  a  corresponding  development 
of  powers.  They  seem  physically  weaker  than  normal 
children  of  the  same  age.  As  their  mental  powers  rise 


244         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  coordination  of  body  movements  and  facial  expression 
approaches  the  normal.  They  can  be  trained  to  do  all 
the  tasks  within  the  grasp  of  a  child  of  corresponding  age, 
and  thus  may  do  much  in  the  way  of  caring  for  them- 
selves, always  under  supervision. 

Moron  is  the  term  recently  applied  to  the  highest  group 
now  classified  with  the  feeble-minded.  They  range  from 
the  upper  limit  of  the  imbeciles  to  the  mental  age  of 
perhaps  12.  This  highest  group  are  so  much  like  the 
normal  that  they  have  not  always  been  distinguished  and 
would  often  be  unrecognized  by  the  inexperienced.  Even 
institution  superintendents  ten  years  ago  denied  that  they 
differed  from  the  normal.  Dr.  Barr,  the  head  of  the 
great  school  at  Elwyn,  Pennsylvania,  claimed,  however, 
that  above  the  feeble-minded  was  a  class  which  he  called 
the  moral  imbecile.  He  thought  that  they  were  normal 
in  all  things  except  in  their  inability  to  distinguish  right 
from  wrong.  Our  newer  tests  have  shown  that  we  were 
merely  dealing  with  a  feeble-minded  group  of  higher 
mental  age. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  the  study  of  the  defectives  it  was 
thought  that  a  sharp  line  separated  them  from  the  normal. 
Now  it  is  seen  that  the  one  shades  into  the  other  by  imper- 
ceptible degrees.  Because  the  lower  grades  are  so  easily 
distinguished  from  the  normal  it  was  thought  that  their 
numbers  were  very  limited.  Now,  as  the  higher  grades 
are  recognized  and  more  accurate  surveys  are  made,  it  is 
clear  that  the  number  is  far  larger  than  had  been  thought 
and  there  has  been  a  growing  recognition  of  the  importance 
of  the  problem  they  present.  It  becomes  then  a  matter 
of  more  than  passing  interest  to  discover  the  cause  of  this 
condition. 

Ordinarily  feeble-mindedness  is  not  detected  until  the 


245 

age  of  infancy  is  past.  Then  the  child  fails  to  keep  up 
with  its  fellows  and  the  parents  begin  to  inquire  as  to 
the  reason.  Finally,  the  mother  recalls  that  at  the  age 
of  six  months  the  child  had  a  severe  fever,  or  fell  from 
a  chair  and  bumped  its  head  and  this  fact  is  then  held  to 
be  the  cause  of  the  trouble.  This  may  be  true,  but  we 
should  not  forget  that  the  cause  is  recalled  only  after 
years  have  intervened  and  that  probably  something  else 
also  happened  which  might  have  been  fixed  on  had  not 
the  particular  incident  been  remembered.  That  is  to  say, 
the  parents  were  looking  for  a  cause  and  were  certain  to 
find  one.  The  difficulty  is  that  every  child  at  some  time 
bumps  its  head  hard,  or  has  some  sickness,  yet  only  a  few 
fail  to  develop  subsequently.  At  the  other  extreme  stands 
the  fact  that  we  have  no  record  of  two  feeble-minded 
parents  producing  a  normal  child.  There  are  such 
parents  with  normal  children  in  the  family  but  we  can- 
not always  be  sure  of  the  percentage  of  the  normal  mem- 
bers. In  the  famous  case  cited  by  Goddard  the  normal 
children  were  mulattoes,  while  both  the  reputed  parents 
were  white.  Moreover,  where  one  of  the  parents  is 
feeble-minded  some,  occasionally  all,  of  the  children  are 
feeble-minded.  In  other  cases,  though  the  parents  are 
both  normal,  investigation  proves  that  some  of  their 
ancestors  were  feeble-minded.  Such  phenomena  were 
extremely  puzzling  until  the  development  of  biology  and 
the  discovery  of  unit  characters  offered  possible  explana- 
tions. Some  of  the  actual  family  histories  may  now  be 
considered. 

There  is  no  better  case  than  that  which  formed  the 
beginning  of  the  survey  made  by  the  Training  School  at 
Vineland,  New  Jersey,  which  Goddard  detaib  in  his 
valuable  book,  "  The  Kallikak  Family." 


246         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"  When  Martin,  Sr.,  of  the  good  family,  was  a  boy  of 
fifteen,  his  father  died,  leaving  him  without  parental 
care  or  oversight.  Just  before  attaining  his  majority, 
the  young  man  joined  one  of  the  numerous  military  com- 
panies that  were  formed  to  protect  the  country  at  the 

Caspar 


The  Nameless  Feeble  minded  Qirl 
Not  Married 


Deborah 
THE  KAU.IKAK  FAMILY 

Legitimate  line  on  left  —  all  members  normal. 
Illegitimate  line  on  right  —  many  members  feeble-minded. 

beginning  of  the  Revolution.  At  one  of  the  taverns  fre- 
quented by  the  militia  he  met  a  feeble-minded  girl  by 
whom  he  became  the  father  of  a  feeble-minded  son.  This 
child  was  given,  by  its  mother,  the  name  of  the  father  in 
full,  and  thus  has  been  handed  down  to  posterity  the 
father's  name  and  the  mother's  mental  capacity.  This 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  247 

illegitimate  boy  was  Martin  Kallikak,  Jr.,  the  great-great- 
grandfather of  our  Deborah,  and  from  him  have  come 
four  hundred  and  eighty  descendants.  One  hundred  and 
forty-three  of  these,  we  have  conclusive  proof,  were  or  are 
feeble-minded,  while  only  forty-six  have  been  found  nor- 
mal. The  rest  are  unknown  or  doubtful. 

"  Among  these  four  hundred  and  eighty  descendants, 
thirty-six  have  been  illegitimate. 

"  There  have  been  thirty-three  sexually  immoral  per- 
sons, mostly  prostitutes. 

"  There  have  been  twenty-four  confirmed  alcoholics. 

"  There  have  been  three  epileptics. 

"  Eighty-two  died  in  infancy. 

"  Three  were  criminal. 

"  Eight  kept  houses  of  ill  fame. 

"  These  people  have  married  into  other  families,  gen- 
erally of  about  the  same  type,  so  that  we  now  have  on 
record  and  charted  eleven  hundred  and  forty-six  indi- 
viduals. 

"  Martin,  Sr.,  on  leaving  the  Revolutionary  Army, 
straightened  up  and  married  a  respectable  girl  of  good 
family,  and  through  that  union  has  come  another  line  of 
descendants  of  radically  different  character.  These  now 
number  four  hundred  and  ninety-six  in  direct  descent. 
All  of  them  are  normal  people.  Three  men  only  have 
been  found  among  them  who  were  somewhat  degenerate, 
but  they  were  not  defective.  Two  of  these  were  alcoholic, 
and  the  other  sexually  loose. 

"  All  of  the  legitimate  children  of  Martin,  Sr.,  married 
into  the  best  families  in  their  state,  the  descendants  of 
colonial  governors,  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, soldiers  and  even  the  founders  of  a  great  university. 
Indeed,  in  this  family  and  its  collateral  branches,  we 


248 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


find  nothing  but  good  representative  citizenship.  There 
are  doctors,  lawyers,  judges,  educators,  traders,  land- 
holders, in  short,  respectable  citizens,  men  and  women 
prominent  in  every  phase  of  social  life.  They  have 
scattered  over  the  United  States  and  are  prominent  in 
their  communities  wherever  they  have  gone."  9 

A  study  of  the  following  charts  will  help  to  make  clear 
the  evidence: 


INHERITANCE  OF  FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS 


These  three  cases  chosen  practically  at  random  from 
the  hundreds  at  hand  illustrate  the  various  aspects  of 
the  problem.  In  the  first  we  have  the  intermarriage  of 
related  lines  which  carry  the  common  characteristic, 
illegitimacy,  incest,  many  deaths  of  infants  and  a  large 
percentage  of  feeble-minded.  In  the  second  we  see  again 
the  results  of  the  marriage  of  two  affected  individuals 
and  also  the  effects  of  crossing  a  normal  stock  with  one 
affected  even  though  the  individual  person  is  normal.  In 
the  third  we  have  another  illustration  wherein  the  father 
of  normal  stock  has  only  normal  children  by  his  first 

»GODDABD,  H.  H.     The  Kallikak  Family,  p.  18ff. 

10 GODDABD,  H.  H.     Feeble-mindedness   (redrawn),  p.  158. 


250         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

normal  wife,  while  on  remarrying  later  a  feeble-minded 
woman  at  least  three  of  his  children  are  known  to  be 
afflicted. 

To  make  detailed  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  feeble- 
mindedness would  be  inappropriate  here,  so  a  general 
statement  must  suffice.  The  illustrations  given  indicate 
clearly  the  possibility  of  its  inheritance.  It  is  probable 
that  within  the  group  we  now  call  feeble-minded  are  two 
classes  of  persons ;  first,  those  whose  defect  has  come  down 


hill  1  i  A 

w 


J]  Children,  all  Normal 

SAME  FATHER  DIFFERENT  MOTHER 

(After  Goddard) 
CONTRAST  IN  CHILDREN 

from  earlier  generations;  second,  those  who  have  been 
crippled  by  accident  or  disease.  From  an  educational 
or  economic  viewpoint,  these  groups  are  practically  alike, 
biologically  they  are  fundamentally  different.  The  most 
serious  objection  to  the  old  explanation  in  terms  of  acci- 
dent and  disease  lies  in  the  fact  already  stated,  that  two 
affected  parents  do  not  have  normal  children,  but  their 
children  should  be  normal  if  the  condition  resulted  from 
untoward  circumstances  of  life.  Moreover,  when  we 
increase  our  surveys  of  the  families  of  the  feeble-minded 
we  almost  always  discover  a  lot  of  cases  among  the  rela- 
tives or  ancestors  hitherto  unknown.  It  is  also  a  striking 
fact  that  the  percentage  apparently  coming  from  perfectly 
normal  families  is  nearly  50  among  the  idiots  and  not 
more  than  25  among  the  higher  imbeciles.  Malnutrition, 
or  a  failure  to  develop  normally,  seems  to  characterize  this 
lowest  group  which  is  so  weak  that  it  seldom  reaches 
physical  maturity.  There  is,  then,  no  reproduction  from 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  251 

this  group.  The  higher  imbeciles  and  morons,  possessed 
of  the  same  physical  appetites  as  the  normal,  but  lacking 
the  power  of  inhibition,  are  sure  to  reproduce  in  or  out 
of  wedlock  if  opportunity  offers. 

We  may  then  summarize  present  knowledge  with  refer- 
ence to  these  individuals  as  follows: 

1.  Among  those  now  known  as  feeble-minded  are  two 
types  of  persons:  the  first,  comprising  perhaps  one-third 
of  the  total  are  victims  of  circumstances;  are  usually  of 
low  grade,  are  short  lived  and  present  to  society  a  problem 
of  support.     The  second  type,  embracing  some  two-thirds 
of  the  total,  constitute  a  sub-species  or  variation  from  the 
normal,  usually  of  higher  grade  and  longer  life,  and  pre- 
senting society  a  problem  of  reproduction  and  conduct  as 
well  as  support. 

2.  This  second  type  breeds  true  within  itself  and  there 
is  reason  to  suspect  that  it  acts  on  Mendelian  lines  when 
crossed   again  with  the  normal.     Out  of   324  matings, 
Goddard  found  708  feeble-minded  where  the  theoretical 
expectation  was  704,  and  348  normal  when  the  expecta- 
tion was  352.     He  well  says:  "  Such  results  are  difficult 
to  account  for  on  any  other  basis  than  that  feeble-minded- 
ness   is  transmitted   in   accordance  with  the   Mendelian 
formula  .  .  .  normal-mindedness,  is,  or  at  least  behaves 
like,  a  unit  character  "  and  "  is  dominant."  12 

3.  We  do  not  know  the  number  of  the  feeble-minded, 
but  the  total  in  the  United  States  must  be  upwards  of 
300,000. 

4.  Inasmuch  as  the  feeble-minded  are  differently  con- 
stituted from  the  normal  they  cannot  support  or  conduct 
themselves  as  do  ordinary  people,  and  will  therefore  find 
their  way  in  large  numbers  into  the  charitable  and  penal 

12  GODDAED,  H.  H.     o.  c.,  p.  556. 


252         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

institutions.  Dr.  Goddard  estimates  that  perhaps  50  per 
cent  of  the  inmates  of  reformatory  and  penal  institutions 
are  feeble-minded.  A  similar  estimate  is  often  made  with 
reference  to  prostitutes. 

Insanity,  like  feeble-mindedness,  is  a  collective  term 
used  to  designate  many  different  types  of  trouble.  It 
seems  to  be  settled  that  a  large  part  of  insanity  is  due  to 
some  disease  like  syphilis,  or  to  some  vice  like  alcoholism 
or  worry.  There  is  abundant  reason  to  believe,  how- 
ever, that  there  exists  a  certain  weak  or  delicate  nerve 
structure  which  is  frequently  transmitted  generation  after 
generation.  Some  alienists  have  stated  that  they  do  not 
know  what  insanity  is,  but  that  given  this  neurotic  type, 
it  is  perfectly  sure  to  manifest  itself  in  insanity,  epilepsy 
or  alcoholism.  In  the  following  charts  we  have  illustra- 
tions of  the  marriage  of  apparently  normal  individuals 


IT 


•  liTA  . 


©  14 

NEUROTIC  INHERITANCE 

Affected  Individuals  Shaded.     I  Insane;  E  Epileptic;  +  Dead,  facts 

unknown. 

is  DAVENPORT,  C.  B.    Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  p.  78. 
14  Ibid.,  p.  79. 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  253 

in  which  this  neurotic  taint  manifests  itself  in  later  genera- 
tions, as  well  as  a  case  in  which  it  was  evident  at  first. 

When  we  recall  that  the  cost  of  caring  for  the  insane 
in  recent  years  amounts  to  about  one-sixth  of  the  entire 
expenditure  of  the  state  of  New  York,  to  about  one- 
tenth  of  that  of  Pennsylvania  and  that  the  number  of 
insane  is  increasing  apparently  at  the  rate  of  100  per 
cent  per  decade,  the  importance  of  determining  its  cause 
needs  no  discussion.  In  1910  there  were  in  the  United 
States  some  187,791  insane  cared  for  in  institutions. 

There  is  some  evidence  that  certain  forms  of  insanity 
like  dementia-precox,  and  the  manic-depressive  type  are 
directly  inherited  and  act  as  recessives  to  the  normal  while 
a  rather  rare  form  known  as  Huntington's  chorea  is  a 
dominant.  A  Michigan  commission  has  recently  reported 
that  65.4  per  cent  of  4,917  insane  in  the  state  showed 
tainted  ancestry.  Guyer  describes  a  case  given  in  the 
following  diagram: 


ill  . 


INHERITANCE  OF  INSANITY      15 

Epilepsy  is  a  mysterious  condition  whose  causes  are 
unknown.  The  number  of  epileptics  is  perhaps  equal  to 
that  of  the  feeble-minded  though  much  less  attention  has 
been  paid  to  them.  Their  relationship  to  the  feeble- 
minded and  the  insane  is  obscure  and  yet  seems  to  be 
real.  Dr.  D.  E.  Weeks,  who  is  in  charge  of  the  Institution 

IB  GUYER,  M.  F.    o.  c.,  p.  241. 


254         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

for  Epileptics  in  New  Jersey,  has  written :  "  That  there 
are  five  times  as  many  epileptics  as  feeble-minded  in  those 
fraternities  coming  from  matings  where  neither  parent 
can  be  classed  as  normal  or  called  mentally  defective, 
seems  to  indicate  that  neurotic  and  otherwise  tainted  con- 
ditions are  more  closely  related  to  epilepsy  than  to  feeble- 
mindedness." He  also  states  that  "  two  epileptic  parents 
produce  only  defective  offspring."  16  Dr.  Weeks  observed 
15  matings  where  one  parent  was  epileptic,  the  other 
feeble-minded.  There  were  living  55  children  who  were 
old  enough  to  be  classified.  Of  these  28  were  found  to 
be  epileptic,  26  feeble-minded  and  1  insane. 

Further  evidence  is  unnecessary  to  show  us  that  certain 
types  of  mental  defects  are  directly  inherited.  Whether 
there  has  been  a  real  proportionate  increase  in  the  classes 
in  recent  years  may  be  open  to  doubt  but  no  one  can 
doubt  their  presence  in  the  country  in  very  large  numbers 
nor  fail  to  realize  the  cost  of  their  maintenance.  The 
problem  of  handling  them  is  further  complicated  by  the 
fact  that  these  characteristics  seem  to  act  usually  as  reces- 
sives,  and  may  be  carried  to  the  next  generation  by  men 
and  women  who  themselves  show  no  sign  of  the  trouble. 
Evidently,  too,  under  favorable  conditions  a  sub-variety  of 
the  human  race  might  easily  develop. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  is  another  side  to  the  story. 
Good  traits  are  inherited  as  well  as  bad.  By  the  irony 
of  fate  it  is  often  harder  to  see  and  appreciate  these 
good  features  than  it  is  to  see  the  bad,  but  there  are 
superior  as  well  as  inferior  types. 

Longevity  appears  to  be  a  family  trait  judging  from 
the  following  tables  in  which  the  figures  indicate  age  at 
death : 

ie  WEEKS,  D.  F.,  in  Problems  in  Eugenics,  p.  62  ff. 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY 


255 


(72)      (72)      (95)      (70)      (83)      (85)      (62)      (TO)      (£9) 

THE  INHEHITANCE  OF  LONGEVITY  " 

These  two  families  who  lived  in  America  during  the 
colonial  times  under  conditions  by  no  means  exceptionally 
good  so  far  as  is  known,  whose  women  were  mothers  of 
large  families,  and  yet  who  averaged  nearly  twice  the 
length  of  life  of  Americans  of  today,  can  hardly  be  ex- 
plained save  on  the  basis  of  inherited  physique.  More- 
over, it  is  possible  to  find  families  characterized  by  short 
life  who  have  not  lived  under  unusually  bad  conditions 
in  so  far  as  we  can  see. 

Just  as  color  of  hair  and  eyes,  shape  of  skull  or  face 
and  stature  may  be  inherited  so  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  mental  characteristics  may  descend  generation 
after  generation.  Here  however  we  encounter  great  dif- 
ficulties. Stature  and  eye  color  are  patent  to  every 
observer  regardless  of  the  activity  of  their  possessor.  Are 
there  different  types  of  mental  ability,  let  us  say  the 
mathematical,  the  philosophical,  the  executive  and  the 
musical,  or  does  ability  involve  the  power  of  success  in 
many  fields  ?  Can  we  be  sure  that  the  actual  career  of  a 
man  is  in  the  field  in  which  his  ability  really  lies? 

"  The  compass  was  not  invented  by  an  astronomer, 
Nor  the  microscope  by  a  natural  philosopher, 
Nor  the  printing  press  by  a  man  of  letters, 
Nor  gunpowder  by  a  soldier." 
17  THE  FOWLEBS.    Hereditary  Descent,  pp.  31-34. 


256         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

At  present,  the  answers  to  these  and  similar  questions 
are  far  from  adequate  or  satisfactory.  The  clearest  case 
is  probably  that  of  the  musician,  for  musical  ability  seems 
to  rest  upon  some  peculiar  attribute  of  the  brain.  Some 
people  can  never  learn  to  recognize  different  melodies, 
let  along  sing  or  play,  regardless  of  the  amount  of  train- 
ing; while  others  have  a  keen  sense  of  time,  rhythm  and 
harmony  even  without  training.  The  most  famous  musi- 
cal family  of  modern  times  started  with  Weit  Bach,  a 
baker  of  Presburg,  Germany,  about  1550,  who  found 
relaxation  in  music.  His  two  sons  commenced  the  un- 
broken line  of  musicians  of  the  same  name  that  lasted 
for  nearly  two  centuries.  They  were  all  organists  or 
church  singers.  In  no  other  single  family,  perhaps,  have 
so  many  musical  geniuses  appeared  —  twenty-nine  in  all. 
So,  too,  Mozart,  Beethoven  and  Amati  were  members  of 
musical  families.  Thorwaldsen,  Vandyck,  Murillo  and 
Titian  came  from  families  of  artists.  With  regard  to 
other  professions  the  evidence  is  conflicting  though  every 
one  knows  of  families  of  lawyers,  professors,  physicians, 
as  well  as  business  men  and  cattle  dealers.  Yet  where 
the  son  of  a  distinguished  man  attains  eminence  it  is  as 
often  as  not  in  some  different  field. 

Strange  as  it  seems  at  first  human  heredity  was  not 
much  studied  before  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  would-be  student  of  today  finds  it  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  get  reliable  information  with  reference 
to  earlier  generations,  while  laboratory  experiment  is  out 
of  the  question.  Moreover  popular  verdicts  of  men  and 
women  often  rest  on  such  superficial  foundations  that 
they  have  little  value  to  the  scientist.  We  must  say,  then, 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  all  sorts  of  mental  ability 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  257 

may  be  inherited,  but  social  prestige  rests  upon  so  many 
foundations  that  real  ability  must  not  be  inferred  there- 
from. Thus,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  general 
accuracy  of  Karl  Pearson  when  he  writes,  after  studying 
three  or  four  thousand  school  children  in  Great  Britain: 

"  I  cannot  free  myself  from  the  conception  that  under- 
lying every  psychical  state  there  is  a  physical  state,  and 
from  that  conception  there  follows  at  once  the  conclusion 
that  there  must  be  a  close  association  between  the  succes- 
sion or  recurrence  of  certain  psychical  states,  which  is 
what  we  judge  mental  and  moral  characteristics  by,  and 
an  underlying  physical  conformation  be  it  of  brain  or 
liver.  .  .  . 

"  We  are  forced,  I  think  literally  forced,  to  the  general 
conclusion  that  the  physical  and  psychical  characters  in 
man  are  inherited  in  the  same  manner,  and  with  the  same 
intensity.  The  average  home  environment,  the  average 
parental  instinct  is  in  itself  part  of  the  heritage  of  the 
stock  and  not  an  extraneous  and  additional  factor  em- 
phasizing the  resemblance  between  children  of  the  same 
home.  .  .  . 

"  Geniality  and  probity  and  ability  may  be  fostered  by 
the  home  environment  and  by  provision  of  good  schools 
and  well-equipped  institutions  for  research,  but  that  their 
origin,  like  health  and  muscle,  is  deeper  than  these  things. 
They  are  bred  and  not  created.  That  good  stock  breeds 
good  stock  is  the  commonplace  of  every  farmer;  that  the 
strong  man  and  woman  have  healthy  children  is  widely 
recognized  too,  but  we  have  left  the  moral  and  mental 
faculties  as  qualities  for  which  we  can  provide  amply  by 
home  environment  and  good  education.  .  .  . 

"It  is  the  stock  itself  which  makes  its  home  environ- 


258         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

ment,  the  education  is  of  small  service,  unless  it  be  applied 
to  an  intelligent  race  of  men."  18 

So,  too,  Dr.  F.  A.  Woods  after  studying  the  royal 
families  of  Europe  writes : 

"  Many  people  argue  that  great  geniuses,  coming  as  they 
frequently  do  from  humble  families,  Franklin  and  Lin- 
coln, for  instance,  discount  our  belief  in  mental  heredity ; 
when,  on  the  other  hand,  these  men  should  only  strengthen 
our  reliance  in  this  same  force.  We  should  consider  the 
thousands,  indeed  millions,  of  mediocrities,  who  have  to 
be  born  from  mediocrities,  before  one  mind  of  the  type 
of  Franklin's  is  produced.  That  they  rise  superior  to 
their  circumstances  is  in  itself  a  proof  of  the  inborn 
nature  of  their  minds  and  characters.  A  man  of  this 
sort  represents  a  combination  of  the  best  from  many  ances- 
tors. It  would  be  possible  in  a  great  many  throws  to  cast 
a  large  number  of  dice  so  that  they  would  all  fall  aces. 
But  here  in  certain  regions  of  royalty  as  among  the  Mont- 
morencys  and  Hohenzollerns  where  the  dice  are  loaded, 
such  a  result  may  be  expected  in  a  large  percentage  of 
throws."  19 

It  is  interesting  to  use  Dr.  Wood's  estimate  of  mental 
rank  and  compare  a  few  of  the  royal  families  of  Europe. 
In  the  first  the  shaded  figures  represent  those  individuals 
put  by  Dr.  Woods  in  the  three  highest  grades  while  in 
the  second  chart  all  the  black  figures  are  below  the  sixth 
grade  and  only  one  rises  to  the  seventh. 

"  If  we  compare  the  eight  hundred  odd  persons  who 
form  the  main  body  of  this  study  with  the  world  in  gen- 
eral, we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  relatively  large 
numbers  of  exceptional  geniuses  who  have  from  time  to 

is  PEABSON,  K.     In  Jour.  Anthrop.  Inst.,  Vol.  XXXIII,  p.  179  ff. 
i»  WOODS,  F.  A.    Heredity  in  Royalty,  p.  299. 


Coa.de 


IEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY 


'*.  * 


1.  William  the  Silent 

2.  The  Great  Elector 

3.  William  III,  England 

4.  Frederick    the    Great 

5.  Gustavus  III,  Sweden 

INHERITANCE  OF  GBEAT  ABILITY  20 

Shaded  figures  in  3  highest  grades.    Numbers  in  figures  indicate 

grade. 

time  appeared  in  their  genealogical  charts  and  have  taken 
their  places  as  actual  and  undisputed  leaders  in  many 
of  the  greatest  movements  in  European  history.  Among 
the  men  alone,  there  are  25  in  grades  9  and  10.  These 
are  the  bearers  of  names  of  unquestioned  distinction, 
names  of  geniuses  who  stand  without  superiors  in  the 
20  WOODS,  F.  A.  o.  c.,  p.  72  ff. 


260 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


INHERITANCE  OF  Low  ABILITY.    BOTJBBONS  IN  SPAIN  AFTEB  1700  21 
Shaded  figures  under  Grade  6.    Numbers  indicate  grade. 

practical  domains  of  war  and  government.  Where  else 
could  we  take  eight  hundred  interrelated  names  at  random 
and  find  twenty-five  world  geniuses  ? 

"  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  modern  royalty,  as  a 
whole,  has  been  decidedly  superior  to  the  average 
European  in  capacity;  and  we  may  say  without  danger 
of  refutation,  that  the  royal  breed,  considered  as  a  unit, 
is  superior  to  any  other  one  family,  be  it  that  of  noble 
or  commoner."  To  this  last  claim  many  will  take  ex- 
ception.22 

Out  of  each  hundred  males  of  the  royal  families,  Dr. 
Woods  puts  the  following  23  in  each  of  the  ten  intellectual 


Class 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

Per    cent.    .  .  . 

.17 

5.3 

10.4 

12.4 

18 

18 

17.2 

10.9 

4.6 

.17 

Cases    

7 

21 

41 

49 

71 

70 

68 

43 

18 

7 

Total     395 


21  WOODS,  F.  A.     o.  c.,  p.  154  ff. 

22  Ibid.,  p.  301. 


23  Ibid.,  p.  19. 


261 


classes,  those  in  class  one  representing  the  lowest,  those 
in  class  ten  the  highest. 

Elsewhere  Dr.  Woods  has  shown  that  eminent  persons 
have  a  large  number  of  eminent  relatives  by  comparing 
the  47  elected  to  the  Hall  of  Fame  in  New  York  City 
with  a  list  of  3,500  formed  by  adding  together  the  names 
in  two  standard  biographies.  "  Now  the  chances  that  an 
ordinary  mortal  —  any  man  taken  at  random  —  will  be 
as  closely  related  (as  close  as  a  grandparent  or  grandson) 
to  any  person  in  this  second  group  (the  3,500  group)  is 
about  one  in  five  hundred  to  perhaps  one  in  a  thousand. 
In  contrast  to  this,  fully  one-half  of  those  in  the  Hall  of 
Fame  are  closely  related  to  some  one  in  the  second  group, 
and,  if  all  their  distinguished  relatives  are  added  up, 
they  average  more  than  one  apiece.  In  other  words,  the 
amount  of  distinguished  relationship  which  the  Hall  of 


Wedgwood 


Darwin 


Gafton 


INHERITANCE  OF  ABILITY  2* 

Shaded  squares  represent  men  of  exceptional  ability;  figures  in  dia- 
monds represent  other  children,  sex  not  stated. 

24WHETHAM,  W.  C.  D.     The  Family  and  the  Nation,  p.  89. 


262         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Fame  gives  is  about  a  thousand  times  the  random  ex- 
pectation." 25 

Admitting,  for  argument's  sake,  that  all  Dr.  Wood's 
claims  for  royalty  is  true,  and  recognizing  further  the 
superiority  of  the  Bach  family,  the  ability  of  the  Wedg- 
wood-Galton-Darwin  family  of  England,  the  Beechers, 
Adams  and  Edwards  families  of  America,  there  is  a 
singular  and  striking  isolation  in  most  of  the  cases  the 
world  calls  great.  However,  we  may  explain  their  supe- 
riority, it  is  not  hard  to  see  why  the  world  has  developed 
so  few  families  which  display  and  maintain  marked  char- 
acteristics which  put  them  above  the  rank  and  file  of 
their  contemporaries.  This  explanation  lies  in  the  fact 
that  about  the  last  thing  considered  by  those  contemplating 
marriage  is  the  endowment  of  the  next  generation.  There 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  any  given  trait  might  be 
maintained  provided  mates  were  sought  among  those  hav- 
ing similar  characters.  Every  one  knows  that  religious, 
racial,  social,  financial  considerations  and  the  chance  asso- 
ciation under  favorable  surroundings,  have  outweighed 
physical  factors  in  the  determination  of  marriage  con- 
tracts. General  health  as  indicated  by  beauty  and  virility 
has  indeed  been  taken  into  account,  but  its  influence  has 
not  been  decisive.  Save  in  sporadic  and  short-lived 
experiments,  there  has  been  no  acceptance  of  an  ideal  of 
good  breeding  among  humans  save  as  regards  habits  and 
manners. 

Recognizing  then  the  existence  of  the  superman,  what 
is  his  nature  ?  Does  he  possess  ordinary  capacity  in  most 
respects  plus  his  extra  equipment  in  one  or  two  directions, 
or  does  he  secure  his  gifts  by  the  sacrifice  of  other  quali- 
ties? From  the  days  of  Ribot  and  Lombroso  on,  there 

25  WOODS,  F.  A.     In  Problems  in  Eugenics,  p.  250. 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  263 

has  been  a  tendency  to  regard  the  genius  as  an  abnormal 
type  approaching  the  degenerate  and  therefore  to  be 
regarded  with  suspicion.  Even  as  regards  an  apparently 
minor  point,  stature,  Lombroso  thought  that  the  geniuses 
were  usually  either  tall  or  short  men,  rather  than  of 
average  stature. 

MEN  OF  MEDIUM  MENTAL  ATTAINMENTS 
Tall,  16  per  cent  Medium,  68  per  cent         Short,  16  per  cent 

MEN  OF  GENIUS 
Tall,  41  per  cent  Medium,  22  per  cent        Short,  37  per  cent  26 

"  Lebon,  on  examining  the  skulls  of  twenty-six  French- 
men of  genius,  found  that  they  yielded  an  average  capacity 
of  1,732  cubic  centimeters  —  a  little  more  than  300  in 
excess  of  the  average.  On  the  other  hand,  of  the  brains 
of  twelve  famous  Germans  studied  by  Wagner  and  Buch- 
off,  eight  had  either  a  decidedly  low  or  a  very  high  capa- 
city. Doellinger,  for  instance,  had  a  capacity  of  only 
1,207  cubic  centimeters,  and  Leibig  1,352  cubic  centi- 
meters." 27 

Some  one  has  said :  "  When  genius  comes  in  at  the 
door,  health  flies  out  of  the  window."  Without  attempt- 
ing to  list  the  physical  stigmata  by  which  genius  is  alleged 
to  be  characterized,  we  may  note  the  claims  of  the  ad- 
herents of  this  degeneracy  or  insanity  conception  by 
quoting  from  Lydston: 

"  ^Esop,  Virgil,  Demosthenes,  Cicero  and  Cato  were 
undoubtedly  neuropaths.  The  stammering  of  Demos- 
thenes is  familiar  to  every  schoolboy.  Socrates  had  a 
familiar  genius  or  demon  that  dominated  the  hallucina- 
tions of  which  he  was  the  victim.  Pausanius,  the  Greek 

26  DOBLAND,  W.  A.  N.     Age  of  Mental  Virility,  p.  201. 
2TJbid.,  p.  204. 


264         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

traveler  and  geographer,  murdered  a  slave  and  was  ever 
after  pursued  and  tormented  by  the  spirit  of  the  mur- 
dered youth.  The  immortal  Lucretius  suffered  from  in- 
termittent mania,  and  suicided  at  forty-four.  Peter  the 
Great  had  epilepsy;  one  of  his  sons  had  convulsions,  and 
the  other  hallucinations.  Linne  was  a  precocious  genius 
who  had  a  hydrocephalic  cranium.  Raphael  was  often 
tempted  to  suicide.  .  .  .  Paschal  suffered  from  nervous 
troubles  and  paralysis  all  his  life,  and  died  in  convulsions. 
.  .  .  Moliere  was  a  sufferer  from  convulsions.  The 
slightest  excitement  or  opposition  would  suffice  to  pre- 
cipitate an  attack.  Mozart  was  a  musical  prodigy.  He 
composed  at  four  years  of  age.  He  was  affected  by  faint- 
ing fits,  and  was  warned  of  impending  death  by  a  vision. 
He  died  of  brain  disease  at  thirty-six.  Cuvier,  Victor 
Hugo,  Chopin,  Bruno,  Comte,  Madame  de  Stael,  Swift, 
Johnson,  Cowper,  Southey,  Shelley,  Byron,  Carlyle,  Gold- 
smith, Lamb,  Poe,  Keats,  Coleridge,  De  Quincey,  Chatter- 
ton,  George  Eliot,  George  Sand,  Alfred  de  Musset,  New- 
ton, Chateaubriand,  De  Balzac,  Chatham,  Burns,  Dickens 
—  all  of  these  beacon-lights  of  the  history  of  genius 
showed  indubitable  evidences  of  degeneracy.  In  some  of 
them  the  evidences  of  mental  alienation  were  very  striking. 
Hugo  was  dominated  by  the  egotistic  idea  of  becoming  the 
greatest  man  of  all  time.  Giordano  Bruno  thought  he 
contained  the  essence  of  God.  De  Stael  was  an  opium- 
eater;  she  feared  the  sensation  of  cold  after  death,  and 
stipulated  in  her  will  that  she  be  buried  in  furs.  Swift 
was  of  insane  stock;  he  was  naturally  cruel  and  given  to 
violent  and  aggressive  outbursts  of  temper.  He  suffered 
from  serious  impairment  of  vision  and  audition,  with 
muscular  twitching  and  facial  paralysis.  Shelley  was 
called  "  mad,"  he  had  hallucinations  and  was  the  victim 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  265 

of  the  opium  habit.  Charles  Lamb  was  confined  in  an 
asylum.  A  sister  of  his  suffered  a  similar  fate,  and  is 
said  to  have  murdered  her  mother  during  one  of  her 
maniacal  attacks.  Johnson  had  convulsions  and  cramps, 
hallucinations  and  at  one  time  aphasia.  Southey  had  a 
neurotic  ancestry,  and  died  an  imbecile.  Cowper  was 
afflicted  by  melancholia.  He  attempted  suicide  on  numer- 
ous occasions.  His  melancholia  finally  assumed  the  re- 
ligious type,  and  he  was  confined  in  an  asylum  for  a  year 
and  a  half.  Byron's  ancestry  was  bad,  and  his  brain  was 
as  clubbed  as  his  foot.  Thomas  Chatterton  was  a  weak- 
ling, called  back  to  the  bosom  of  nature  before  his  time, 
through  the  agency  of  self-murder.  Poe,  the  man  who 
stands  out  in  boldest  relief  in  American  literature,  was 
a  dipsomaniac  and  not  unlikely  a  lunatic.  .  .  . 

"  The  list  of  geniuses  who  have  been  shown  to  be 
indubitably  insane  is  a  long  one.  Vico  died  demented; 
Haller  was  religiously  insane;  Ampere  believed  himself 
possessed  by  the  devil;  Nathaniel  Lee,  the  dramatist,  did 
his  best  work  while  insane;  Thomas  Lloyd,  Schumann, 
Gerard  de  Nerval,  Baudelaire,  Comte,  Torquate  Tasso, 
Dean  Swift,  Rousseau  and  Schopenhauer  are  among  the 
great  men  whose  histories  would  adorn  the  pages  of  an 
alienist's  records  quite  as  well  as  they  have  the  history 
of  genius."  28 

One  may  admit  that  this  account  is  exaggerated,  not 
to  mention  the  vastly  greater  claims  made  by  Max  Nordau, 
and  yet  be  forced  to  recognize  that  where  there  is  so  much 
smoke  there  must  be  some  fire.  While  the  contributions 
of  genius  may  be  worth  all  they  cost,  it  is  probably  for- 
tunate that  society  at  large  is  made  up  of  ordinary  men 
and  women. 

28LYDSTON,  G.  F.     Diseasea  of  Society  and  Degeneracy,  p.  460  ff. 


266         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

The  steady  convergence  during  the  last  quarter  century 
of  several  lines  of  research  has  at  last  produced  the  con- 
viction in  the  minds  of  thinking  and  well-informed  men 
and  women  that  society  must  pay  attention  to  the  question 
of  human  heredity  for  the  sake  of  the  future  of  the  race. 

The  older  students  had  held  to  the  idea  that  all  men 
were  of  relatively  equal  responsibility  for  their  acts,  since 
all  possessed  free-will.  Lombroso  in  his  great  work  "  The 
Delinquent,"  published  in  1876,  challenged  this  attitude. 
He  and  his  followers  known  as  the  "  Positive  School  of 
Criminologists  "  insisted  that  the  criminals,  aside  from 
those  whose  offenses  were  accidental,  were  marked  off  from 
ordinary  men  by  physical  stigmata  which  indicated  degen- 
eration or  a  reversion  to  a  more  primitive  type  of  human- 
ity. Though  their  extreme  claims  do  not  appear  war- 
ranted, there  is  a  much  more  general  acceptance  of  them 
in  essence  than  there  was  at  first  and  the  attitude  of  the 
public  towards  the  criminal  is  being  steadily  modified. 

In  America  the  investigation  of  the  degenerate  families 
of  the  Jukes  in  New  York  in  the  seventies,  the  Ishmaelites 
of  Indiana  in  the  nineties,  the  Kallikaks  of  New  Jersey 
and  the  Sixties  of  Ohio  in  this  decade  has  revealed  the 
existence  of  a  great  army  of  more  or  less  degenerate  indi- 
viduals reproducing  generation  after  generation  and 
causing  an  enormous  expense  by  their  crimes  and  their 
inability  to  care  for  themselves. 

Meantime  Galton  and  his  followers  have  been  studying 
the  superior  types  of  humanity  and  urging  concerted 
efforts  to  improve  the  race  stock.  With  this  has  come 
the  emphasis  which  stock-breeding,  and  the  production 
of  desirable  new  varieties  of  plants  and  animals,  together 
with  the  newer  biology  and  the  increased  knowledge  of 
heredity,  has  given  to  the  desire  to  grapple  with 


267 

human  problems.     The  result  is  the  movement  known  as 
"  eugenics." 

This  movement  has  two  very  different  sides,  negative 
and  positive.  Negative  eugenics  is  the  attempt  to  stop 
the  reproduction  of  the  unfit.  Naturally  there  is  much 
division  of  opinion  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  term,  but 
no  one  doubts  the  unfitness  of  the  feeble-minded,  of  the 
lower  grades  at  least.  It  is  suggested  therefore  that  their 
reproduction  be  prevented.  This  may  be  done  by  the 
prohibition  of  marriage  provided  such  prohibition  be 
enforced.  Inasmuch  as  they  will  procreate  outside  the 
family  relationship,  this  in  itself  is  not  sufficient.  It 
must  be  supplemented  therefore  either  by  a  policy  of 
segregation  in  institutions,  particularly  of  women  during 
the  child-bearing  years,  for  all  who  cannot  be  adequately 
protected  at  home,  or  by  sterilization  through  a  surgical 
operation.  Such  an  operation  is  much  more  difficult  in 
the  case  of  the  women  than  in  the  men,  but  the  chief 
danger  is  from  the  former.  To  such  a  program  objec- 
tion is  brought  on  two  grounds.  Certain  religious  insti- 
tutions seem  to  feel  that  it  is  sacrilegious  and  that  there 
is  a  divine  right  of  procreation  regardless  of  the  type  of 
children  to  be  expected  or  the  ability  of  the  parents  to 
care  for  them.  The  second  argument  is  based  on  the  fear 
that  the  power  which  this  policy  would  lodge  in  some 
committee  might  be  abused,  that  there  is  no  agreement 
as  to  where  the  line  should  be  drawn  and  that  sexual 
immorality  would  be  encouraged  by  the  knowledge  that 
children  could  not  result.  One  who  knows  the  feeble- 
minded can  only  be  amused  at  the  last  argument,  for 
immorality  on  their  part  is  solely  a  question  of  oppor- 
tunity. That  the  upper  limits  of  those  to  be  so  treated 
is  hazy  is  admitted  and  only  as  evidence  accumulated 


268         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

from  experience  could  other  groups  be  included.  Though 
these  proposals  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  part  of  the  law 
in  some  twelve  states,  the  movement  for  sterilization  will 
not  make  much  headway,  probably,  until  the  terrific  cost 
of  segregating  the  unfit  is  appreciated. 

It  is  clear  that  many  of  the  insane  and  those  suffering 
from  transmissible  contagious  disease,  particularly  those 
having  venereal  disease,  should  not  marry  and  the  move- 
ment to  prohibit  such  marriages  is  growing.  Such  pro- 
hibition may  be  found  in  the  laws  of  some  states.  It  is 
to  be  expected  that  sooner  or  later  a  physical  certificate 
will  be  required  of  all  who  contemplate  marriage  and  in  so 
far  as  men  are  concerned  this  is  now  the  law  in  Wisconsin. 
It  is  foolish  however  to  limit  its  application  to  men.  If 
some  such  laws  were  enforced,  the  burden  of  the  unfit 
might  be  greatly  reduced  in  a  couple  of  generations  and 
the  question  of  the  extension  to  new  classes  would  then  be 
much  simpler.  It  is  too  much  to  hope  that  such  pro- 
hibitions will  be  extended  to  individuals  of  afflicted  stock, 
themselves  normal,  much  as  the  biologist  may  recognize 
the  danger  from  them.  The  sterilization  of  criminals 
guilty  of  sexual  offenses  has  often  been  urged,  and  actu- 
ally carried  out  in  a  few  instances,  but  such  laws  as  exist 
are  usually  disregarded. 

Negative  eugenics  is  probably  more  generally  practiced 
by  individuals  than  is  realized.  There  are  many  who  do 
not  marry  because  they  know  they  come  from  neurotic 
stock  and  fear  lest  they  have  defective  children.  There 
are  others  who  are  careful  to  pick  wife  or  husband  from 
a  family  which  has  not  shown  in  its  history  the  same 
type  of  weakness.  We  may  be  able  to  accomplish  a  good 
deal  if  we  can  get  intelligent  people  to  consider  this 
matter.  Why  should  we  not,  for  illustration,  train  the 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  269 

girl  of  a  family  which  has  suffered  greatly  from  tubercu- 
losis, that  she  must  never  consider  as  a  possible  husband 
a  man  of  similar  ancestry?  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  all 
know  of  such  cases.  I  have  used  this  illustration  deliber- 
ately. We  know  that  tuberculosis  is  not  transmitted  from 
mother  to  child  before  birth,  ordinarily  at  least.  Inas- 
much as  it  is  due  to  a  specific  organism  it  is  not  in- 
herited. Yet  different  families  living  under  the  same 
environment  show  a  different  degree  of  resistance  to  it. 
Inasmuch  as  we  are  all  certain  to  be  exposed  is  it  not 
the  part  of  wisdom  to  combine  non-resistant  with  resistant 
stocks  as  far  as  possible? 

Positive  eugenics  involves  the  attempt  to  improve  the 
race  stock  by  the  greater  care  in  the  selection  of  life- 
partners.  At  present  this  is  an  ideal  rather  than  a  move- 
ment. It  is  generally  misunderstood  and  ridiculed  but  one 
of  these  days  will  come  into  its  own.  To  attempt  to  pro- 
hibit or  compel  the  falling  in  love  with  a  given  individual 
is  usually  vain  but  it  would  seem  possible  to  develop 
such  standards  that  certain  classes  of  people  would  be 
considered  while  others  would  not.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
this  is  now  done  in  many  ways,  but  the  basis  of  such 
discrimination  is  social  rather  than  biological. 

There  is  a  marked  difference  between  domestic  animals 
and  the  human  stock.  The  animals  become  more  valuable 
to  man  as  they  become  highly  specialized.  We  breed 
them  therefore  for  the  qualities  desired  by  us.  Who 
shall  determine  what  special  types  of  humans  are  to  be 
perpetuated?  Do  men  exist  for  the  sake  of  society,  or 
society  for  the  sake  of  men  ?  We  can  imagine  a  civiliza- 
tion of  specialized  groups  from  the  feeble-minded  hewer 
of  wood  and  drawer  of  water,  the  higher  grade  cook  and 
housekeeper,  the  school  teacher  and  lawyer,  the  musician 


270         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

and  inventor,  up  to  the  genius;  each  marrying  and  per- 
petuating his  own  qualities  at  the  behest  of  some  overlord, 
whose  task  it  would  be  to  keep  the  world  going  and  main- 
tain peace  and  order.  We  should  have,  however,  a  sys- 
tem of  absolute  slavery  for  most  of  the  race.  It  is  not 
likely  that  this  ideal  will  appeal  to  us  of  today.  We 
prefer  rather  a  race  of  sound  and  normal  men  and  women 
of  general  rather  than  specialized  traits. 

Recognizing  then  that  any  type  of  strength,  like  any 
type  of  defect,  may  be  inherited,  is  this  thing  we  call 
genius  common  or  rare  ?  Certain  factors  must  be  kept  in 
mind  in  seeking  an  answer  to  this  question.  Disregard- 
ing for  the  moment  the  influence  of  the  environment  in 
producing  genius,  it  is  clear  then  that  in  all  ages  and 
places  the  general  conditions  of  culture  and  the  spirit  of 
the  people  play  a  part.  The  great  poets  are  those  whose 
songs  have  come  down  to  us  in  written  form.  How  many 
equally  great  have  been  lost  to  us  by  the  destruction  of 
the  records  we  know  not.  Neither  do  we  know  how  many 
have  lived,  sung  and  died  among  peoples  without  written 
records.  In  all  the  ages  past  there  must  have  been  count- 
less thousands  of  men  and  women  of  the  highest  possi- 
bilities —  like  him  who  invented  the  bow  and  arrow  or 
the  art  of  fire  making.  Others  live  in  the  records  merely 
because  of  some  accidental  discovery  or  chance  deed,  who 
in  reality  were  not  to  be  compared  to  many  of  their  asso- 
ciates. Yet  others  very  likely  are  honored  because  they 
stole  or  appropriated  that  which  makes  them  famous.  If 
our  history  is  so  full  of  great  men  whom  existing  enemies 
tried  in  vain  to  suppress,  what  of  those  who  were  sup- 
pressed? Were  they  all  inferior  in  equipment,  or  has 
luck  played  a  part?  Furthermore,  let  us  not  forget  the 
tendency  to  centralize  our  explanation  of  some  great  move- 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  271 

ment  in  one  man,  to  the  utter  neglect  of  others  perchance 
in  reality  equally  important.  In  all  ages  we  have  sought 
for  the  great  men  and  we  usually  find  that  for  which  we 
seek,  or  discover  an  acceptable  substitute. 

Francis  Galton,  to  whose  studies  of  genius  all  students 
are  indebted,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  about  250  men 
out  of  a  million  really  belonged  in  the  class  called  dis- 
tinguished. His  conclusion  would  divide  the  million  in 
the  following  fashion,  as  worked  out  by  Ammon :  29 

Class  X  I")  Genius 

G  14 1 

F  233  f  Talented 

E  2423J 

D  15696 

C  63696 

B  161279 

A  256791 

a  256791 

b  161279 

c  63563 

d  15696 

e  2423 

f  233 

g  14 

x  1J 

On  examining  Lehr's  "  Genealogy  "  of  royal  and  noble 
families,  containing  some  3,312  names  representing  some 
32,768  individuals,  Woods  found  only  16  worthy  of  being 
placed  in  his  two  highest  grades,  9  and  10.  Ward  how- 
ever believes,  on  the  basis  of  French  studies,  that  these 
estimates  are  entirely  too  low,  and  would  put  the  number 
at  2,000  out  of  every  million.  Even  if  we  come  to  some 
definition  of  genius,  it  seems  impossible  to  get  any  satis- 
factory estimate  of  its  prevalence  at  the  present  time. 

This  introduces  another  great  question  into  which  we 
cannot  enter  in  detail.  Galton  and  the  older  students 
made  genius  and  fame  practically  identical  and  thus  were 

29  REIBMAYB,  A.,  quoted  by,  Inzucht  und  Vermischung,  p.  246. 


Poorly  equipped  and  not  useful. 


272         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

led  to  place  all  the  emphasis  on  heredity.  Woods  tried 
to  avoid  this  danger  by  studying  the  royal  families  only 
where  all  members  were  known  and  could  be  graded  with 
some  accuracy.  Yet  he  came  to  much  the  same  conclu- 
sion. "  The  upshot  of  it  all  is,  that  as  regards  intellectual 
life,  environment  is  a  totally  inadequate  explanation.  If 
it  explains  certain  characters  in  certain  instances,  it  al- 
ways fails  to  explain  as  many  more;  while  heredity  not 
only  explains  all  (or  at  least  90  per  cent)  of  the  intellec- 
tual side  of  character  in  practically  every  instance,  but 
does  so  best  when  questions  of  environment  are  left  out  of 
the  discussion."  30  In  a  later  essay  Woods  has  consider- 
ably modified  this  verdict. 

"  But  heredity  is  not  everything,  and  I  will  give  but 
two  illustrations  which  show  the  possibility  of  separating 
out  environment.  Professor  E.  C.  Pickering  and  myself 
have  recently  been  measuring  the  scientific  activity  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  especially  in  the  natural  and 
exact  sciences,  by  studying  the  elections  to  academies  and 
the  inclusion  of  names  in  the  standard  English,  French 
and  German  encyclopedias.  It  appears  that  the  increase 
in  the  total  number  of  men  engaged  in  science  in  Germany 
during  the  nineteenth  century  surpasses  the  expectations 
of  heredity,  and  therefore  must  be  due  to  something  else 
—  something  we  must  call  environment.  Also,  I  have 
unpublished  material  showing  that  the  proportionate 
number  of  women,  as  compared  to  men,  whose  eminence 
makes  them  noteworthy,  has  increased  measurably  in  the 
United  States  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country  to 
the  present  day."  31 

Against  the  popular  idea  that  genius  rises  above  the 

so  WOODS,  F.  A.    o.  c.,  p.  286. 

si  WOODS,  F.  A.,  in  Problems  in  Eugenics,  p.  252  ff. 


HEREDITY  AND  SOCIETY  273 

handicaps  environment  may  offer  and  overcomes  all  ob- 
stacles, there  are  many  evidences.  "  The  trend  of  the 
whole  investigation  has  been  in  the  general  direction  of 
showing  that  great  men  have  been  produced  by  the  co- 
operation of  two  causes,  genius  and  opportunity,  and 
that  neither  alone  can  accomplish  it.  But  genius  is  a 
constant  factor,  very  abundant  in  every  rank  of  life,  while 
opportunity  is  a  variable  factor  and  chiefly  artificial.  As 
such  it  is  something  that  can  be  supplied  practically  at 
will.  The  actual  manufacture,  therefore,  of  great  men, 
of  the  agents  of  civilization,  of  the  instruments  of  achieve- 
ment, is  not  a  Utopian  conception  but  a  practical  under- 
taking." 32 

This  quotation  is  taken  from  "  Applied  Sociology  "  by 
Lester  F.  Ward,  in  which  is  to  be  found  the  most  careful 
and  critical  examination  of  the  evidence  on  this  subject 
with  which  the  writer  is  familiar.  It  is  particularly  valu- 
able because  it  puts,  in  available  form  a  digest  of  an 
important  and  little  known  work  by  a  French  student, 
Odin. 

Odin  found,  on  studying  the  French  men  of  letters 
during  a  period  of  several  centuries,  that  neither  density 
of  population,  nor  race,  nor  social  position  were  determina- 
tive ;  but  rather  opportunity.  As  he  puts  it :  "  We  have 
thus  arrived,  by  a  series  of  careful  approaches  and  elimina- 
tions, at  the  conclusion  that  the  fecundity  of  the  respective 
localities  in  remarkable  men  of  letters  rests  essentially 
upon  the  educational  resources  that  they  place  within  the 
reach  of  their  occupants."  33  About  98  per  cent  of  the 
men  had  enjoyed  exceptional  training  and  opportunity  in 
childhood  as  well  as  in  later  life.  Odin  does  not  make 

32  WARD,  L.  F.     Applied  Sociology,  p.  220. 

33  Ibid.,  p.  213. 


274         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Galton's  mistake  of  ignoring  the  women,  and  lie  finds  the 
same  rule  to  hold.  Over  half  of  the  women  writers  of 
note  came  from  Paris  where  the  greatest  opportunities 
were  offered.  Clarke  comes  to  similar  conclusions  in  his 
study  of  American  men  of  letters. 

One  needs  only  to  consider  the  growth  in  the  United 
States  in  the  last  century,  the  marvelous  inventions  and 
discoveries,  the  tremendous  strides,  not  only  in  providing 
education  for  women,  but  their  advent  into  fields  hitherto 
closed  to  them  (not  only  because  of  their  sex  but  also 
because  of  their  reputed  inability  to  do  the  things  done 
by  their  brothers)  to  realize  that  talent,  whether  rare  as 
Galton  thought  or  common  as  Ward  believed,  must  de- 
velop in  accord  with  opportunity. 

Heredity  then  furnishes  the  basis  and  sets  the  limits 
to  the  development.  Environment  must  furnish  the 
stimulus  and  the  opportunity.  Heredity  determines 
what  a  man  may  become,  but  environment  determines 
what  he  does  become.  Here  biology  has  one  great  lesson 
to  teach.  Problems  of  heredity  cannot  be  solved  by 
changing  the  environment,  nor  can  society  wait  for  some 
happy  variation  ere  it  utilizes  the  new  factors  in  its  own 
surroundings.  The  feeble-minded  child  may  be  trained 
to  the  limits  of  its  capacity  but  it  never  becomes  normal 
nor  are  its  children  improved.  The  various  factors  that 
enter  into  that  complex  we  call  social  progress,  will  be 
elsewhere  considered. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

CASTLE,  W.  E.,  et  al.    Heredity  and  Eugenics.    1912. 
CONKLIN,  E.  G.    Heredity  and  Environment.    1915. 
DAVENPORT,  C.  B.    Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics.    1911. 
ELLIS,  H.    A  Study  of  British  Genius.    1904. 
"  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene.    1912. 


HEEEDITY  AND  SOCIETY  275 

GALTON,  F.    Hereditary  Genius  (2nd  Ed.,  1892).    1869. 
"  Natural  Inheritance.    1889. 

GODDARD,  H.  H.    The  Kallikak  Family.    1913. 
"  Feeble-mindedness.    1914. 

GUYEE,  M.  F.    Being  Well-Born.    1916. 

JORDAN,  D.  S.    The  Human  Harvest.    1907. 

KELLICOTT,  W.  E.    The  Social  Direction  of  Human  Evolution. 
1912. 

LOMBROSO,  C.    The  Man  of  Genius  (English  text).    1891. 

LYDSTON,   G.   F.,    The  Diseases   of   Society   and   Degeneracy. 
1904. 

MOTT,  F.  W.    Heredity  and  Eugenics  in  Relation  to  Insanity. 
1912. 

PEARSON,   K.    (Ed.).    The    Treasury    of   Human    Inheritance. 
1912. 

Report  of  First  International  Conference  on  Eugenics.    Prob- 
lems in  Eugenics,  1912. 

Report  of  First  National  Conference  on  Race  Betterment.    Bat- 
tle Creek,  1914. 

RHODES,  F.  A.    The  Next  Generation.    1916. 

SALEEBY,  C.  W.    Parenthood  and  Eace  Culture.    1909. 

SCHUSTER,  E.    Eugenics.    1912. 

WARD,  L.  F.    Applied  Sociology.    1906. 

WHETHAM,  MR.  and  MRS.  W.   C.  D.    Heredity  and  Society. 
1912. 

WINSHIP,  A.  E.    The  Jukes-Edwards  Families.    1900. 

WOODS,  F.  A.    Heredity  in  Royalty.    1906. 


CHAPTER  VII 
KACE  DIFFEKENCES 

To  the  superficial  observer  all  birds  of  a  given  species 
look  alike.  In  reality  they  are  not  alike  and  it  is  pos- 
sible to  subdivide  the  species  into  many  classes  or  races 
by  grouping  together  those  having  the  given  characters. 
Our  common  little  screech-owl  sometimes  has  a  reddish 
plumage,  sometimes  gray  plumage,  even  in  the  same 
locality ;  but  apart  from  color  the  two  seem  to  be  identical. 
The  beautiful  woodpeckers  known  as  flickers  or  yellow 
hammers  have  a  golden-yellow  cast  of  plumage  in  the 
eastern  part  of  North  America.  In  the  west,  however, 
the  yellow  feathers  are  replaced  by  red  plumes  and  the 
bird  is  given  a  very  different  appearance.  Again,  aside 
from  this  we  cannot  distinguish  them,  and  every  combina- 
tion exists  from  the  extreme  yellow  type  to  the  extreme 
red.  The  same  is  true  of  meadow-larks,  blackbirds,  many 
warblers,  tits  and  tanagers  as  well  as  of  such  different 
animals  as  squirrels,  foxes  and  bears.  Because  of  our 
recognition  of  these  races  or  subspecies,  exact  classifica- 
tion is  in  many  ways  more  difficult  than  it  was  in  the  days 
of  Linnaeus. 

In  earlier  days  it  was  supposed  that  such  variations 
as  were  known  had  been  directly  caused  by  conditions  of 
soil  and  climate.  Now,  as  we  have  seen,  the  evidence  is 
against  this  idea,  and  we  have  come  to  believe  that  varia- 
tion has  been  produced  by  new  germ  cell  combinations. 

It  may  still  be  true  that  some  of  these  mutants  are  better 

276 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  277 

fitted  to  survive  under  given  conditions  and  will  there- 
fore have  an  advantage  over  other  types  and  tend  to 
replace  them.  In  other  cases  the  character  in  question 
seems  to  have  no  possible  significance  in  so  far  as  sur- 
vival is  concerned.  We  can  see  no  difference  in  the 
yellow  and  the  red  types  of  flickers  in  so  far  as  strength 
or  fitness  to  exist  is  concerned.  They  are  different,  that 
is  all.  When  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  human  species 
we  find  the  same  phenomena. 

"  The  genus  Homo  has  but  one  existing  species :  Homo 
sapiens.  And  this  species  ...  is  fairly  divisible  into 
four  subspecies,  all  of  which  are  so  fertile  in  their  cross- 
breeding with  one  another  that  they  have  in  the  course 
of  time  given  rise  to  many  transitional  races  and  inter- 
mediary types,  so  much  so  that  only  about  two-thirds  of 
the  living  peoples  of  today  can  be  decisively  allotted  to 
one  or  other  of  the  definite  subspecies.  The  remaining 
third  comprises  the  long-established  mongrel,  hybrid  races 
formed  by  the  mixture  of  some  or  even  of  all  of  these 
four  divisions  of  the  existing  human  species.  These  dis- 
tinguishable subspecies  are : 

1.  The  Australoid,  nearest  of  all  living  men  to  the 
ancestral  Human,  to  the  paleolothic  man  of  Europe 
and  North  Africa ;  and  to  the  possible  parent  thereof 
—  Homo  primigenius,  the  man  of  Neanderthal  and 
Heidelberg,  of  the  Correze,  of  Spy,  Krapina,  and 
Gibraltar. 

2.  The  Negro. 

3.  The  Caucasian  or  European,  possibly  descended 
in  a  direct  line  from  the  Australoid  or  basal  stock, 
with  which  in  any  case  it  is  closely  allied. 

4.  The  Mongolic  or  Asiamerican. 


278         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"An  ancient  mingling  of  (1),  (2),  (3)  and  (4)  has 
produced  the  Polynesian  type;  of  (2),  (3)  and  (4)  — 
(4)  predominating  —  the  Japanese.  The  Amerindian 
peoples  are  mainly  descended  from  an  early  branch  of 
Mongolia  mixed  with  Proto-Caucasian ;  there  are  many 
tribes  in  the  Malay  Archipelago  that  are  half  Mongol, 
half  Negrito  (Asiatic  Negro) ;  the  natives  of  Madagascar 
are  a  mixture  of  Mongolic-Polynesian  and  Negro. 
Negrito  and  Australoid  in  varying  degrees  of  inter- 
mixture have  produced  the  Tasmanian  negroids  and  the 
Papuans.  The  aborigines  of  Ceylon  (Veddahs)  and 
India  (Dravidians,  Todas,  etc.)  are  on  the  borderland 
between  Australoid  and  Caucasian  with  (here  and  there) 
a  touch  of  Negrito  or  Mongol.  Some  of  the  Central 
Asians  or  North  Europeans  are  Caucasians  crossed  with 
Mongols,  the  two  strains  being  either  evenly  balanced 
or  one  of  them  predominating.  The  proud  peoples  of 
Western  and  Southern  Europe  and  of  North  Africa,  of 
Syria,  Arabia  and  Persia,  are  principally  composed  of 
Caucasian  tinged  very  slightly  or  considerably  with 
ancient  or  modern  Negro,  or  Australoid  (Dravidian) 
blood;  the  war-like  tribes  of  Northeast  Africa  are  half 
Caucasian,  half  Negro.  The  very  Negro  himself  is 
scarcely  of  unmixed  subspecific  rank,  except  in  his  ex- 
treme Bushman-Hottentot,  Pigmy  and  West-African 
Forest  types.  Elsewhere  a  meandering  rill  of  Caucasian 
—  perhaps  even  of  Australoid  —  blood  permeates  Negro 
Africa  and  Negrito  Asia."  1 

There  is  a  very  widespread  confusion  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  race.  It  should  be  used  as  above  indi- 
cated to  apply  to  groups  of  people  who  may  be  distin- 

i  JOHNSTON,  H.  H.     The  Negro  in  the  New  World,  pp.  1-2. 


RACE  DIFFERENCES  279 

guished  from  each  other  by  certain  physical  traits.  With 
the  possible  exception  of  the  Eskimo,  the  inhabitants  of 
America  when  the  whites  first  came  here  were  all  of 
common  stock  and  we  may  properly  speak  of  an  Indian 
race.  In  language,  institutions  and  laws,  they  differed  as 
much  as  did  the  north-Europeans  of  whom  Caesar  wrote. 
The  Germans,  in  spite  of  the  claim  of  Tacitus  that  they 
were  a  pure,  unmixed  people  tracing  their  descent  from 
one  god,  were  a  mixed  people  descended  from  various 
stocks ;  and  it  is  incorrect  to  speak  of  them  as  a  race  un- 
less the  term  is  limited  to  some  definite  part  of  the  people. 
There  were  Aryan  peoples  speaking  related  languages  but 
there  was  no  Aryan  race.  Common  language,  culture, 
residence  and  nationality  do  not  preclude  differences  in 
race.  Nor  does  inclusion  in  the  same  race  preclude 
individual  differences  which  may  be,  and  often  are,  quite 
as  great  as  those  which  separate  the  races  themselves. 
We  are  here  considering,  not  these  personal  differences, 
but  those  between  groups  of  individuals. 

Whether  there  is  any  relation  between  the  physical 
peculiarities  which  may  exist  and  civilization  is  another 
and  very  different  problem,  and  the  student  must  be 
warned  at  the  outset  not  to  confuse  the  two.  Deeply 
ingrained  in  human  nature  is  the  tendency  to  believe  that 
we  and  our  own  ancestors  have  been  and  are  superior 
people.  Our  men  are  the  finest,  our  women  the  most 
beautiful.  We  come  to  prefer  our  own  traits,  to  con- 
sider them  as  highest  and  best,  and  to  forget  that  other 
groups  have  like  notions  and  hence  different  standards. 
First  then  let  us  see  what  differences  are  to  be  found,  and 
later  consider  their  significance. 

Color  is  perhaps  the  first  character  to  attract  attention. 


280         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

In  the  human  being  this  ranges  from  black  to  white  and 
depends  upon  the  amount  of  coloring  matter  in  the  pig- 
ment cells  of  the  skin,  hair  and  eyes.  The  color  of  hair 
and  eyes  varies  more  in  the  white  groups  than  in  all  others. 
The  eyes  range  from  very  light  blue  to  dark  brown,  the 
hair  from  flaxen  yellow  to  black.  Outside  the  white 
group  the  hair  is  brown  or  black  and  the  eyes  are  always 
brown.  Koughly  speaking  we  may  divide  living  men 
into  four  groups: 

1.  Black:  Negroes  just  south  of  the  Sahara,  and  in  a 

few  isolated  spots  in  South  Africa:  Melanesians. 

2.  Chocolate:    through    coffee    and    olive   to    reddish- 

brown:  the  American  Indians,  Polynesians. 

3.  Yellow:  (dull  leather  to  muddy  white)  :  most  of  the 

Asians,  northern  Africans,  Hottentots,  Bushmen, 
Eskimo,  Lapps,  Malaysians. 

4.  White:    (some  groups  verging  towards  yellow  or 

brown)  :  Europeans,  some  Asians,  Ainus  of  north- 
ern Japan. 

"  The  general  rule  is  that  eyes  and  hair  vary  together, 
both  being  either  light  or  dark,  as  if  in  correspondence. 
Nevertheless,  such  ideal  combinations  do  not  characterize 
a  majority  of  most  European  populations.  Thus,  in 
Germany,  of  six  million  school  children  observed  on  a 
given  day,  not  one-half  of  them  showed  the  simple  com- 
bination of  dark  eyes  and  dark  hair  or  of  light  eyes  and 
light  hair.  .  .  .  Even  among  the  Jews,  Virchow  found 
less  than  forty  per  cent  characterized  by  the  same  tinge 
of  hair  and  eyes.  In  parts  of  Russia  the  proportion  of 
pure  types  is  scarcely  above  half;  in  Denmark,  less  than 
forty  per  cent  were  consistently  pure."  2 

,  W.  Z.     Races  of  Europe,  p.  65. 


RACE  DIFFERENCES  281 

Barring  the  exceptional  cases  of  dwarfs  or  giants  the 
average  stature  of  human  groups  ranges  from  four  feet 
four  inches  to  five  feet  ten  inches.  Ripley  states  that 
more  than  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  human  species  is 
above  the  average  height  of  five  feet  and  one  inch.  The 
pigmy  groups  of  the  Congo  basin  are  at  the  lowest  level, 
but  most  of  the  Negroes  are  as  tall  as  any  other  groups. 
Great  variations  in  height  are  found  in  the  same  group. 
The  Hottentots  are  taller  than  the  Bushmen;  the  Creeks 
and  Cherokees  than  the  Pueblo  Indians.  The  Scotch  and 
white  Americans  are  about  as  tall  as  the  Polynesians  — 
five  feet  eight  or  nine.  There  are  parts  of  France  where 
the  average  is  but  five  feet  two  inches  and  where  two- 
thirds  of  the  men  are  below  five  feet  three,  while  in  other 
districts  the  average  is  much  higher.  It  appears  that 
favorable  conditions  of  food  and  climate  have  much  to  do 
with  stature  and  Americans  have  often  been  found  to  be 
taller  than  their  European  ancestors. 

The  hair  ranges  from  the  straight  locks  of  the  Indians 
to  the  tightly  twisted  kinks  of  some  of  the  Negroes.  The 
curling  depends  on  the  cross  section,  straight  hair  being 
nearly  circular,  while  the  more  elliptical  the  cross  section 
the  greater  the  twist.  There  are  also  differences  in  the 
distribution  of  the  hair,  only  the  Australoids  and  Whites 
having  hair  on  the  back  while  some,  like  the  Mongols,  are 
almost  beardless. 

The  nose  varies  from  the  narrow  type  of  the  White 
through  the  broader  form  of  the  Mongol  to  the  broad,  flat, 
depressed  type  of  the  Negro.  There  are  also  other  dif- 
ferences less  often  observed.  Such  are  the  greater  breadth 
of  the  Negro's  chest  and  his  narrower  pelvis  so  that  the 
body  form  of  the  sexes  is  almost  the  same.  He  has  also 


282         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

a  greater  development  of  the  heel.  There  are  also  dif- 
ferences in  the  proportions  of  the  body,  in  the  length  of 
arms  and  legs,  in  the  structure  of  the  skin,  the  deposition 
of  fat,  the  curvature  of  the  sacrum  and  the  relative  size 
of  hands  and  feet,  which  with  many  other  features  cannot 
be  considered  in  detail. 

About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  European 
students  realized  that  there  were  marked  differences  in 
the  head  forms  of  men,  and  that  apparently  these  differ- 
ences were  very  persistent  and  could  be  used  as  tests  of 
race.  The  head  is  nearly  always  longer  than  it  is  broad, 
and  by  dividing  the  breadth  by  the  length  we  get  what  is 
known  as  the  cephalic  index.  The  actual  range  of  ob- 
served cases  is  from  62  to  103.  Heads  with  an  index 
under  75  are  called  dolichocephalic  (long-headed) ; 
between  75  and  80,  mesocephalic ;  and  above  80,  brachy- 
cephalic  (round-headed).  In  the  dolichocephalic  division 
belong  most  of  the  Negroes,  Papuans,  Australians,  Eskimo, 
the  Corsicans  and  Portuguese.  In  the  second  are  the 
Bushmen  and  Hausas  in  South  Africa,  Japanese,  northern 
Chinese,  many  Polynesians  and  North  American  Indians, 
Flemings,  Sicilians  and  Basques.  In  the  brachycephalic 
division  are  Magyars,  Walloons,  Russian  and  Galician 
Jews,  South  Chinese  and  Mongols. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  make  any  general  classifica- 
tion of  the  Europeans  or  white  Americans  on  this  basis 
for  all  classes  are  represented.  "  Measurements  on  the 
students  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  are 
fairly  typical  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  people.  Out  of  a 
total  of  486  men,  four  were  characterized  at  one  extreme 
by  an  index  below  70;  the  upper  limit  was  marked 
by  four  men  with  an  index  of  87.  The  series  of 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  283 

heads  culminated  at  an  index  of  77,  possessed  by  72  stu- 
dents. 

"  The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  our  map  of  cephalic 
index  for  western  Europe  is  that  here  within  a  limited 
area  all  the  extremes  of  head  form  known  to  the  human 
race  are  crowded  together.  In  other  words,  the  so-called 
white  race  of  Europe  is  not  physically  a  uniform  and 
intermediate  type  in  the  proportions  of  head  between  the 
brachycephalic  Asiatics  and  the  long-headed  Negroes  of 
Africa.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  believed  that  this  was 
true.  ...  In  the  high  Alps  of  northwestern  Italy  are 
communes  with  an  average  index  of  89,  an  extreme  of 
round-headedness  not  equaled  anywhere  else  in  the  world 
save  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula  and  in  Asia  Minor.  This 
type  of  head  prevails  all  through  the  Alps,  quite  irrespec- 
tive of  political  frontiers.  .  .  .  Yet  within  three  hundred 
miles  as  the  crow  flies,  in  the  island  of  Corsica,  are  com- 
munes with  an  average  cephalic  index  of  73.  .  .  .  Nor 
is  this  all.  Pass  to  northern  Scandinavia,  and  we  find 
among  the  Lapps,  again,  one  of  the  broadest-headed  peo- 
ples of  the  earth."  3 

Kipley  makes  this  difference  in  head  form  one  of 
the  bases  of  his  classification  of  the  European  peoples. 
This  is  perfectly  proper.  Unfortunately,  however, 
other  students,  believing  that  the  north-Europeans 
had  been  the  leaders  in  education  and  civilization  and 
holding  that  they  were  preeminently  long-headed,  have 
made  some  very  extravagant  claims.  Thus  Ammon 
in  a  book  in  which  he  has  really  collected  much 
valuable  evidence  delivers  himself  of  this  tribute  to  his 
ancestors : 

a  RIPLEY,  W.  Z.     o.  c.,  pp.  41-54. 


284         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"  Like  all  the  Aryans  the  Germans  are  born  rulers  of 
other  peoples.  Wherever"  they  appear  they  are  the  nil- 
ing  and  socially  dominant  class.  Mastery  fulfills  their 
longings  and  they  spend  their  time  in  sports,  hunting  and 
fighting  while  the  necessary  physical  labor  is  left  gladly 
to  the  underlings  or  slaves. 

"  Of  entirely  different  type  are  the  mental  character- 
istics of  the  dark  round-headed  groups.  At  the  time  of 
the  'folk-wandering'  a  dark,  round-headed  folk  first  ap- 
pear in  the  light  of  history,  the  Huns.  They  appear  as 
a  race  of  horsemen  from  the  Asian  Steppes :  hateful,  wild, 
hideous,  fond  of  booty  and  blood,  cultureless,  the  terror 
of  the  western  lands. 

"  Thus  the  long-heads  of  German  descent  appear  as 
the  bearers  of  the  higher  spiritual  life,  called  by  nature 
to  occupy  the  ruling  places  as  the  born  defenders  of  the 
fatherland  and  the  social  order.  Their  very  nature 
destines  them  to  the  aristocracy.  Only  in  slight  degree 
do  they  possess  any  business  sense.  The  round-heads  on 
the  contrary  are  in  this  regard  well-equipped.  Skilled 
in  every  agricultural  and  technical  calling,  like  trade  and 
finance,  they  are  surpassing  farmers,  workers  and  dealers, 
but  at  the  same  time  chiefly  docile  underlings.  The  gifted 
among  them  understand  how  to  organize  industrial  enter- 
prises and  increase  their  property.  Purely  scientific 
pursuits  which  the  long-heads  eagerly  follow  with  all  the 
ardor  of  their  natures  are  far  removed  from  the  round- 
heads, who,  nevertheless,  understand  the  practical  value 
of  the  newer  discoveries  and  are  frequently  able  to  bring 
the  squandering  long-heads  into  economic  dependence. 
Their  longing  for  the  democratic  philosophy  of  equality 
is  based  upon  their  own  mediocrity  and  their  own  disin- 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  285 

clination,  if  not  hatred,  towards  greatness  which  they  do 
not  comprehend."  4 

Ammon  seeks  to  find  evidence  for  this  in  the  present 
makeup  of  the  German  population.  He  finds  that  the 
city  population  is  more  largely  of  the  long-heads  and 
that  the  upper  classes  include  few  of  the  round-heads. 
Even  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  facts  are  as  stated  —  and 
many  will  not  admit  it  —  it  is  possible  that  there  are 
other  explanations,  or  that  this  explanation  ignores  other 
facts.  This  claim  is  one  that  can  neither  be  proven  nor 
disproven  with  the  evidence  at  hand.  Certain  other  facts 
must  be  considered. 

Modern  Europe  has  a  very  mixed  population.  As  Rip- 
ley  says :  "  In  no  other  part  of  the  world,  save  modern 
America,  is  such  an  amalgamation  of  various  peoples  to 
be  found  as  in  Europe.  History,  and  archaeology  long 
before  history,  show  us  a  continual  picture  of  tribes  ap- 
pearing and  disappearing,  crossing  and  recrossing  in  their 
migrations,  assimilating,  dividing,  colonizing,  conquering, 
or  being  absorbed.  It  follows  from  this,  that,  even  if  the 
environment  were  uniform,  our  pure  types  must  be  ex- 
ceedingly rare.  .  .  .  We  are  thus  reduced  to  the  extremity 
in  which  my  friend  Dr.  Ammon,  of  Baden,  found  himself 
when  I  wrote  asking  for  photographs  of  a  pure  Alpine  type 
from  the  Black  Forest.  He  has  measured  thousands  of 
heads,  and  yet  he  answered  that  he  really  had  not  been 
able  to  find  a  perfect  specimen  in  all  details.  All  his 
round-headed  men  were  either  blond,  or  tall,  or  narrow- 
nosed,  or  something  else  that  they  ought  not  to  be."  5 

It  is  admitted  that  there  have  been  many  waves  of  con- 

*  AMMON,  0.    Natuerliche  Auslese  beim  Menschen,  p.  177  S. 
»  RIPLEY,  W.  Z.     o.  c.,  pp.  107-108. 


286         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

quering  peoples  sweeping  over  Europe  and  that  present 
social  strata  were  in  part  determined  by  such  conquests. 
It  might  easily  happen  then  that  the  last  conquests  were 
made  by  a  long-headed  race  who  occupy  consequently  a 
relatively  higher  position.  To  assert  that  this  involves 
an  inherent  superiority  of  the  long-head  over  the  round- 
head is  a  very  different  matter. 

If  we  apply  this  test  to  the  various  peoples  on  earth 
we  find  some  curious  combinations.  "  We  are  driven  to 
place  on  the  same  level  the  Bushmen  and  the  French  of 
Roussillon,  the  Teleoutes  and  the  French  of  the  depart- 
ment du  Nord,  the  Nahuquas  of  Brazil  and  the  French  of 
Perigord  and  Limousin ;  the  Mordwa,  the  Tartars  and  the 
Votiaks,  on  the  same  level  as  the  French  in  general,  the 
most  representative  type  of  European  thought  and  civiliza- 
tion." 6 

It  must  be  confessed  that  there  seems  to  be  little  evi- 
dence shown  from  every-day  life  of  this  alleged  superior- 
ity. One  can  only  wonder  what  men  like  Kant,  Laplace, 
Voltaire,  would  have  accomplished  had  they  been  long- 
headed instead  of  round-headed.  In  north  Italy  more 
long-heads  are  reported  among  the  professional  classes; 
in  south  Italy,  more  round-heads.  Moreover,  the  claim 
of  superiority  for  the  long-headed  raises  the  problem  of 
accounting  for  the  supremacy  of  the  round-heads  for  long 
ages  at  various  times  in  the  world's  history.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  such  superiority  is  manifested  in  the  very 
mixed  population  of  the  United  States  today,  though  we 
must  recognize  that  careful  studies  on  this  point  are  lack- 
ing. I  think  that  Finot  is  justified  in  his  final  statements 
on  this  subject: 

"  A  conclusion  forces  itself  on  us  when  we  compare  the 

•  FINOT,  J.     Race  Prejudice,  p.  64. 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  287 

results  obtained  by  the  measurement  of  all  parts  of  the 
head.  It  is  that  the  skull,  which  is  subject  to  variations, 
leaves  an  impression  during  its  evolution  on  the  face  which 
is  only  its  complement.  Consequently,  inasmuch  as  we 
no  longer  see  about  us  any  races  which  are  clearly  defined 
from  a  craniological  point  of  view,  it  is  impossible  that 
there  can  be  any  such  races  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
other  measurements  taken  from  the  component  parts  of 
the  head.  The  differences  among  individuals  belonging 
to  the  same  human  variety  are  always  greater  than  those 
perceived  among  races  regarded  as  distinct  units  in  them- 
selves. 

"  The  mixed  type  constitutes  the  salient  characteristic 
of  modern  humanity,  especially  that  of  Europe.  We  shall 
see  later  on  that  this,  being  the  result  of  a  cross-breeding 
of  nearly  all  the  other  races,  must  have  with  these  many 
traits  in  common.  This  is  particularly  noticeable  in  the 
case  of  craniological  variations."  7 

Much  greater  weight  is  added  to  these  conclusions  by 
the  recent  work  of  Professor  Franz  Boas  which  seems 
to  show  that  the  skull  instead  of  being  as  all  had  sup- 
posed one  of  the  most  unchanging  human  characteristics 
is  being  modified  under  American  conditions.  Just  how 
significant  these  observations  are,  only  future  study  can 
show.  Under  his  direction  observations  were  made  of 
2,422  (males)  and  635  (females)  American  born  Hebrews 
and  of  1,689  foreign  born  males  and  1,253  females.  Some 
Sicilians  were  also  studied  but  the  number  is  not  given. 
Dr.  Boas  reports :  "  The  head  form,  which  has  always 
been  considered  as  one  of  the  most  stable  and  permanent 
characteristics  of  human  races,  undergoes  far  reaching 
changes  due  to  the  transfer  of  the  races  of  Europe  to  Ameri- 

7  FINOT,  j.    o.  c.,  pp.  88-89. 


288         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

can  soil.  The  east  European  Hebrew,  who  has  a  very 
round  head,  becomes  more  long-headed ;  the  south  Italian, 
who  in  Italy  has  an  exceedingly  long  head  becomes  more 
short-headed;  so  that  both  approach  a  uniform  type  in 
this  country,  so  far  as  the  roundness  of  the  head  is  con- 
cerned." 

Cephalic  Index 

Sicilians  born  in  Sicily 78         Born  in  America. ...  80  plus 

Hebrews  born  in  East  Europe  . .   84        Born  in  America 81 

Foreign  American 

born  born 

Hebrew  males,  20  years  old  and  over   83.  81.4 

Hebrew  females,  20  years  old  and  over 85.2  82.7 

Sicilian  males  20  years  old  and  over 81.6  78.1 

Sicilian  females  20  years  old  and  over  ....         79.1  80.8 

"  It  appears  that  the  longer  the  parents  have  been  here 
the  greater  is  the  divergence  of  the  descendants  from  the 
European  type. 

"  The  length  of  the  head  of  the  Hebrew  is  increased ; 
the  width  of  the  head  and  the  width  of  the  face  .  .  .  are 
decreased. 

"  Among  the  Sicilians  the  changes  are,  on  the  whole, 
of  an  inverse  order. 

"  I  think,  therefore,  that  we  are  justified  in  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  removal  of  the  east  European  Hebrew  to 
America  is  accompanied  by  a  marked  change  in  type,  which 
does  not  affect  the  young  child  born  abroad  and  growing 
up  in  American  environment,  but  which  makes  itself  felt 
among  the  children  born  in  America,  even  a  short  time 
after  the  arrival  of  the  parents  in  this  country.  The 
change  of  type  seems  to  be  very  rapid,  but  the  changes 
continue  to  increase;  so  that  the  descendants  of  immi- 
grants born  a  long  time  after  the  arrival  of  the  parents  in 
this  country  differ  more  from  their  parents  than  do  those 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  289 

born  a  short  time  after  arrival  of  the  parents  in  the  United 
States."  8 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  find  some  relation 
between  the  angles  of  the  head  and  mental  ability.  We 
are  tolpl  that  the  prognathic  groups  represent  more  primi- 
tive, hence  lower,  types.  These  measurements  are  very 
uncertain.  So  Camper  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury thought  that  the  human  face  ranged  between  70°  and 
80°.  "Everything  which  is  above  this  comes  under  the 
rules  of  art,  whilst  everything  which  is  below  this  re- 
sembles monkeys.  If  I  raise  the  facial  line  forward,  I 
have  a  classical  head ;  if  I  make  it  lean  backwards,  I  have 
the  head  of  a  negro."  Again  we  have  the  highest  and 
lowest  groups  in  confusion.  Broca  made  the  angle  for  the 
New  Caledonians  66.2,  for  Parisians  65.9,  for  the  native 
Australians  65.6.  The  Bretons  showed  68.5,  the  Auver- 
gnats  67.9,  the  Negroes  68.6.  Using  the  naso-basal  angle 
of  Virchow  we  find  the  Turks  64.3,  the  French  65.1,  the 
Kalmucks  65.8,  the  Chinese  65.9  and  the  Germans  66.2. 
It  is  impossible  to  discover  from  these  figures  any  rela- 
tion between  the  facial  angle  and  race  development. 

There  are  also  differences  in  the  size  of  the  skulls  and 
their  cubic  contents.  It  is  difficult  to  make  many  com- 
parisons or  even  statements  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  ac- 
tual number  of  skulls  measured  or  brains  weighed,  is  often 
meager.  The  cranial  capacity  of  the  Asiatic  Negro  has 
been  put  at  1260  c.c.,  of  the  Bushman  at  1331,  of  the 
African  Negro  at  1388.  These  figures  seem  high  for  the 
cranial  capacity  of  the  European  is  put  at  1360,  and 
curiously  enough  this  is  no  larger  than  that  of  the  earliest 
discovered  skulls  of  man.  It  is  stated  that  the  average 

8  BOAS,  F.     Changes  in  Bodily  Form,  pp.  7  ff,  and  52. 

9  FINOT,  J.     o.  c.,  p.  80. 


290         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

train  weight  of  male  Europeans  is  about  1380  gr.,  that  of 
women,  1237.  It  is  said  that  the  weight  of  the  male 
Negro  brain  ranges  from  974  gr.  to  1445,  the  average  be- 
ing about  1200  gr.,  while  the  average  of  the  Negroes  en- 
listing in  the  Union  army  was  1331.  Again  we  are  at 
a  loss  to  know  what  this  signifies.  If  absolute  weight  has 
any  value  the  male  Negro  is  more  capable  than  the  average 
•white  woman,  a  conclusion  which  many  will  hesitate  to 
accept.  The  brain  weight  of  dwarfs  is  said  to  be  in  some 
cases  YIQ  of  total  body  weight,  but  dwarfs  are  not  strong 
mentally.  Among  mammals  the  smaller  the  animal  the 
larger  proportionally  is  the  brain.  In  the  cat  the  brain 
is  to  the  body  as  1  to  106 ;  in  the  lion,  1  to  546.  Is  the 
lion  of  lower  grade  mentally?  Until  we  know  more  of 
the  brain  it  would  seem  to  be  unsafe  to  draw  any  con- 
clusions of  inferiority  on  the  part  of  the  groups  not  now 
highly  developed  intellectually. 

Within  recent  years,  we  have  learned,  that  individuals 
show  varying  degrees  of  resistance  to  given  diseases.  This 
seems  to  be  due  to  chemical  differences  in  the  blood. 
Whether  this  is  distributed  along  racial  lines  is  a  matter 
of  some  doubt.  Again  this  immunity  may  be  only  ap- 
parent and  due  to  differences  in  mode  of  life  and  care  of 
the  body.  As  illustrative  of  the  differences  which  seem 
to  exist  we  may  note :  "  The  predisposition  of  the  negro 
for  elephantiasis  and  tetanus,  his  sole  liability  to  the 
sleeping  sickness,  .  .  .  his  immunity  from  cancer  and  his 
liability  to  skin  diseases  in  general,  together  with  his  im- 
munity from  yellow  fever  and  bilious  disorders,  are  well- 
recognized  facts  in  anthropology.  The  Mongolian  type 
appears  to  be  likewise  free  from  inflammatory  diseases, 
and  oftentimes  from  cholera  to  some  extent ;  as  well  as  from 
beri-beri,  which  is  so  peculiar  to  the  Malay  stock  that  it 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  291 

may  be  traced  in  the  Japanese  kakke."  10  Consumption 
and  syphilis  appear  to  curse  the  white  race  to  an  unusual 
extent.  To  what  extent  this  idea  will  be  modified  as  we 
get  fuller  information  is  uncertain.  It  may  well  prove 
that  there  are  differences  but  each  race  will  seemingly  have 
a  sufficient  number  of  diseases  left  to  which  it  is  heir  that 
the  death  rate  will  be  maintained. 

It  is  likewise  possible  that  the  different  races  will  be 
found  to  react  in  different  ways  to  climatic  influences. 
Thus  the  Negro  with  his  larger  sweat  glands  and  his  skin 
cool  even  under  tropical  conditions  may  ultimately  thrive 
in  the  tropics  better  than  the  White  and  may  continue  to 
show  a  higher  death  rate  in  the  temperate  regions. 

We  have  now  hastily  reviewed  most  of  the  race  dif- 
ferences which  have  attracted  the  attention  of  students. 
In  spite  of  popular  opinion  it  does  not  seem  possible  to 
classify  the  races  into  higher  and  lower  in  so  far  as  phy- 
sique is  concerned.  In  certain  regards  one  group  seems 
to  have  preserved  more  of  the  characters  of  our  ape-like 
ancestors  but  in  other  regards  the  vaunted  white  race  seems 
nearer  the  original  stock.  It  would  seem  then  that  all 
that  we  can  do  is  to  classify  the  races  on  any  basis  that 
may  appeal  to  us  and  leave  for  the  future  the  determina- 
tion of  the  question  whether  any  of  the  things  we  find 
are  in  any  way  correlated  to  the  development  of  the  brain 
or  the  possibility  of  attaining  a  high  degree  of  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  preferred  basis  for  the  grading  of  the  human  races 
into  higher  and  lower  is  color.  It  so  happens  that  the 
dominant  civilizations  of  today  are  largely  among  the 
lighter  colored  groups.  It  is  easy  to  assume  that  there 
must  be  some  causal  connection  between  these  facts.  The 

10  RIPLEY,  W.  Z.     o.  c.,  p.  568. 


292         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

more  carefully  the  facts  are  examined  the  more  doubtful 
becomes  the  conclusion.  In  ages  gone  by  there  were  great 
civilizations  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile,  in  which  the  blond  groups  of  today  had 
little  part.  "  The  Elamites  of  Mesopotamia  appear  to 
have  been  a  negroid  people  with  kinky  hair,  and  to  have 
transmitted  this  racial  type  to  the  Jews  and  Syrians. 
There  is  a  curliness  of  the  hair,  together  with  a  negro 
eye  and  full  lips,  in  the  portraiture  of  Assyria  which 
conveys  the  idea  of  an  evident  negro  element  in  Baby- 
lonia. Quite  probably  the  very  ancient  negro  invasion 
of  Mediterranean  Europe  (of  which  the  skeletons  of  the 
Alpes  Maritimes  are  vestiges)  came  from  Syria  and  Asia 
Minor  on  its  way  to  central  Europe."  u 

The  Chinese  had  developed  a  high  civilization  at  a  pe- 
riod- when  the  ancestors  of  present  day  Europeans  were 
savages.  The  dark  Americans  were  about  as  far  along 
in  civilization  when  Columbus  found  them  as  were  the 
Teutonic  groups  when  first  they  came  in  contact  with 
the  Romans.  In  the  light  of  history  it  may  be  that  other 
factors  than  color  of  skin  have  caused  the  lighter  groups 
to  play  such  a  prominent  role  just  now.  Possibly  then 
in  ages  to  come  the  darker  groups  will  again  find  their 
place  "  in  the  sun."  At  all  events  until  some  one  is  able 
to  put  his  finger  upon  some  physical  difference  which  can 
be  shown  to  have  some  connection  with  the  degree  of  cul- 
ture or  the  possibility  thereof,  we  have  no  right  to  assume 
that  one  group  of  human  beings  is  either  superior  or  infe- 
rior to  any  other.  Indeed  some  of  our  best  anthropologists 
tell  us  that  if  we  give  a  fixed  value  to  all  the  various  parts 
of  the  body  and  then  proceed  to  measure  the  various  races 

11  JOHNSTON,  H.  H.    o.  c.,  p.  27. 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  293 

we  shall  find  one  standing  about  as  high  as  the  rest  on  our 
ideal  scale.  That  the  minor  physical  differences,  particu- 
larly color,  may  invite  great  differences  of  social  treatment 
in  a  mixed  society  is  not  to  be  overlooked  but  that  is  an- 
other story. 

Whenever  we  consider  any  great  nation  of  which  we 
have  any  considerable  amount  of  information  it  seems  clear 
that  the  race  in  control  is  far  from  being  of  common  descent 
regardless  of  popular  tradition.  That  Egypt,  Greece,  and 
Rome  were  composed  of  many  elements  is  evident  and 
there  has  hardly  been  a  greater  fiction  in  history  than  the 
so-called  Jewish  race.  It  is  equally  well  known  that  mod- 
ern Europe,  as  well  as  America,  shows  a  similar  mixture. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  German  Anthropological  So- 
ciety an  examination  was  made  of  some  10,000,000  school 
children  in  Europe  as  to  color  of  hair,  eyes  and  skin.  Of 
these  6,758,827  were  from  Germany ;  2,304,501  from  Aus- 
tria, 608,698  from  Belgium  and  405,609  from  Switzer- 
land. Of  these,  not  counting  Belgium,  25  per  cent  were 
fair-haired,  15  per  cent  were  brown-haired  and  about  60 
per  cent  mixed.  Germany  showed  31  per  cent  fair- 
haired,  14  per  cent  brown  and  about  55  per  cent  mixed. 
In  Scotland  1,100  Highlanders,  who  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  be  brown  inasmuch  as  they  were  Celts,  showed 
45  per  cent  fair-haired,  30  per  cent  brown  and  25  per  cent 
mixed.  One  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  Viennese 
gave  32  per  cent  fair,  23  per  cent  brown  and  45  per  cent 
mixed.  One  has  only  to  read  Ripley's  "  Races  of  Eu- 
rope "  to  see  what  tremendous  mixtures  there  are  on  that 
Continent,  or  to  consult  the  reports  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Immigration  for  similar  facts  relating  to  the  United 
States.  Admitting  then  the  scarcity  of  what  may  be  called 


294         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"  pure  races  "  of  mankind  and  admitting  further  the  fact 
of  constant  crossing,  can  we  get  any  evidence  as  to  whether 
such  race  intermixture  is  good  or  bad  ? 

Here  again  we  are  confronted  with  the  difficulty  of  dis- 
tinguishing evidence  based  on  fact  from  that  resulting  from 
prejudice.  Human  opinion  on  this  subject  swings  between 
the  two  extremes  of  objecting  to  all  race  crossing  on  one 
side  to  the  advocacy  of  intermarriage  on  the  other.  A 
little  thought  will  show  that  the  marriage  of  two  persons 
of  markedly  different  races  is  likely  to  produce  difficult 
social  questions  regardles.3  of  the  physical  traits  of  the 
offspring.  It  would  seem  then  that  the  violent  opponents 
of  race-blending,  while  basing  their  arguments  on  its  al- 
leged bad  results,  physically  speaking,  really  have  the 
social  confusion  in  mind  while  those  advocating  such  cross- 
ing make  the  opposite  mistake.  The  latter  see  little  reason 
to  fear  bad  physical  results  and  shut  their  eyes  to  the  social 
questions. 

So  we  may  glean  from  a  work  purporting  to  be  scientific 
the  following  sentences.  "  Nature  prevents  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mongrel;  in  the  few  cases  in  which  nature 
has  for  the  time  being  successfully  been  outraged  and 
a  mongrel  produced,  nature  degrades  that  mongrel  merci- 
lessly and  in  time  stamps  it  out.  Nature  suffers  no  mon- 
grel to  live.  .  .  .  The  intermarriage  of  people  of  one 
color  with  people  of  another  color  always  leads  to  deteriora- 
tion." This  writer's  antipathy  to  race  crossing  is  carried 
so  far  that  it  classes  the  people  of  German  and  English 
stock  as  incompatible.  "  It  is  clear  that  the  two  people 
had  developed  into  two  distinct  races,  and  the  development 
of  fifteen  hundred  years  cannot  be  undone  in  America 
any  more  than  anywhere  else.  It  follows  that  they  can 
no  longer  cross  promiscuously  with  impunity.  Promis- 


RACE  DIFFERENCES  295 

cuous  crossing  of  the  two  races  will  lead  to  the  deteriora- 
tion of  both,  and  as  they  are  the  best  two  races  that  the 
world  has,  the  degeneration  of  even  a  few  of  them  is  an 
inestimable  loss  to  the  world."  12  America,  therefore,  is 
doomed  to  an  early  decay  because  of  the  influx  of  many 
peoples.  Curiously  enough  in  the  entire  volume  no  evi- 
dence based  on  physical  facts  is  offered,  but  the  author 
depends  solely  upon  evidence  from  social  customs,  etc. 
Now  inferiority  must  have  a  physical  basis.  If  it  is  so 
clear  and  all-pervasive  it  must  be  possible  to  discover 
some  of  it. 

There  are,  however,  those  who  hold  the  opposite  view- 
point. "  It  is  known  that  a  race  injures  itself  by  in- 
breeding and  that  it  improves  itself  by  crossing  .  .  .  The 
crossings  are  then  indispensable  for  augmenting  the  vigor 
of  a  race.  .  .  .  Crossings  have  such  incontestable  utility 
that  they  should  be  encouraged  as  much  as  possible.  In 
our  own  day  a  number  of  societies,  civilized  as  well  as 
barbarous,  strive  to  prevent  crossings.  They  but  cause 
the  greatest  of  all  evils  —  the  degeneration  of  the  race."  w 
If,  however,  we  turn  aside  from  the  rhetorical  arguments 
and  seek  to  find  the  physical  facts  which  would  justify 
us  in  deciding  this  question  we  shall  be  surprised  to  find 
how  little  tangible  evidence  there  is  and  how  hard  it  is 
to  interpret  what  we  find. 

Lapouge  is  one  of  the  few  who  have  sought  to  collect 
the  facts,  and,  let  us  not  forget,  he  is  a  great  protagonist 
of  the  theory  of  the  inherent  superiority  of  the  dolicho- 
cephalic blondes.  He  believes  his  studies  warrant  him  in 
claiming  that  race-crossing  results  in  the  production  of  all 
sorts  of  disharmony  in  the  body.  We  have  such  asym- 

12  SCHULTZ,  A.  P.     Race  or  Mongrel,  pp.  14  and  298. 

isNovicow,  J.     Quoted  by  Lapouge:  Les  Selections  Sociales,  p.  158. 


296         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

metrical  phenomena  as  the  varying  tone  of  color  between 
the  two  eyes;  the  differences  in  color  of  the  hair  on  the 
right  and  the  left  side  of  face  and  head,  the  dissymmetry 
of  the  nose,  the  combination  of  round  heads  and  oval 
faces  or  of  round  faces  and  long  heads  found  among  many 
of  the  European  groups.  He  holds  that  similar  dishar- 
monies exist  in  the  internal  organs  and  specially  empha- 
sizes the  asymmetry  of  the  uterus  as  of  great  importance 
because  of  its  effect  on  reproduction.  "  Keversion  is  the 
rule  when  the  two  types  are  not  very  different;  otherwise 
it  becomes  the  exception,  and  the  extinction  of  crosses  of 
widely  separated  breeds  results  from  their  infertility.  .  .  . 
Ordinary  crosses  have,  in  general,  a  greater  tendency  to 
reversion  than  to  sterility,  but,  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases,  they  are  less  fecund  than  the  primitive  stocks,  and 
that  infecundity  comes  through  the  crossing."  14  This 
asymmetry  of  the  uterus  he  believes  results  most  frequently 
in  the  crosses  of  the  long-headed  European  type  with  the 
round-headed  Alpine  race.  This  he  considers  one  of  the 
most  potent  causes  of  the  decline  of  population  in  France 
where  he  believes  that  in  general  10  per  cent  of  the  women 
are  sterile.  This  sterility  rises  in  the  districts  of  the 
greatest  intermixture  to  perhaps  25  per  cent  and  falls  in 
some  of  the  secluded  and  purely  Alpine  regions  to  3  per 
cent.  Probably  there  goes  along  with  this  a  production 
of  defective  germ  cells.  The  hybrid  also  has  a  lowered 
vitality  and  greater  mental  instability.  "  The  superior- 
ity of  the  Yankee,  the  English,  Dutch,  Scandinavian  over 
the  French,  Italian,  Spaniard,  South- American  is  not  solely 
the  result  of  their  superiority  of  race,  but  also  of  the  purity 
of  blood.  The  first  are  of  the  European  race  and  are 

I*LAPOUQE,  G.  V.    Les  Selections  Sociales,  p.  170. 


RACE  DIFFERENCES  297 

practically  pure,  the  others  have  less  of  the  European  race 
blood  and  their  inferiority  corresponds  to  the  degree  of 
race  mixture."  15  The  Trench  departments  showing  the 
highest  birthrate  are  those  in  which  the  percentage  of 
long  heads  is  greatest;  those  showing  the  lowest,  the  re- 
verse. All  that  can  be  said  of  most  of  the  disharmonies 
cited  by  Lapouge  is  that  they  are  departures  from  an  es- 
thetic standard  preferred  by  him.  His  statement  with 
reference  to  the  asymmetry  of  the  uterus  is  very  signifi- 
cant if  true.  The  only  difficulty  is  that  other  observers 
do  not  seem  to  substantiate  his  position  and  that  it  is  ren- 
dered very  doubtful  by  certain  historical  facts  shortly  to 
be  mentioned. 

Another  source  of  information  is  the  physical  record 
of  the  Negroes  and  mulattoes  who  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War. 

Weight  of  Brain  of  White  and  Colored  Soldiers 

No.  of  cases  Degree  of  color  Weight  of  brain 

24 Whites    1424  grammes 

25 Three  parts  white   1390  grammes 

47 Half   white    1334  grammes 

51 One-fourth  white    1319  grammes 

95 One-eighth  white    1308  grammes 

22 One-sixteenth  white 1280  grammes 

141 Pure   negroes    1331  grammes  16 

It  seems  difficult  to  draw  any  conclusions  as  to  inferior- 
ity or  superiority  of  the  mulatto  from  this  table  based  as 
it  is  on  only  a  very  few  cases,  yet  some  have  not  hesitated 
to  claim  that  it  shows  his  marked  intellectual  superiority. 
Dr.  Gould  found  among  the  soldiers  the  following  differ- 
ences : 

is  LAPOUGE,  G.  V.    o.  c.,  p.  184. 

16  HUNT,  S.  B.  The  Negro  as  a  Soldier,  Anthropological  Review, 
vii,  p.  1869. 


298         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

White  Negro  Mulatto 

Weight    140  143.8  145.1 

Chest  girth 35.4  35.8  35.7 

Capacity  of  lungs 187.8  cu.  in.       165.3  161.6 

Rate  of  respiration   16.4  17.7  19. 

Pulse  rate    74.84  74.02  76.97 

Head  circumference   ....     22.1  21.9  22. 

Facial   angle    72.  68.8  69.2  " 

On  these  figures  Dr.  Hoffman  comments:  "We  have, 
therefore,  the  contrast  of  the  mulatto  being  physically  and 
perhaps  morally  the  inferior  of  the  pure  blooded  negro, 
while  intellectually  he  is  the  superior."  18 

In  considering  these  statements  we  must  recognize  that 
there  has  been  little  effort  made  to  get  detailed  and  ac- 
curate information  on  the  questions  involved  and  that  pos- 
sibly certain  differences  in  social  conditions  may  account 
for  the  varying  results.  It  is  worth  while  to  note  that 
the  number  of  Negro- White  cross-breeds  in  the  country 
today  cannot  be  far  short  of  the  whole  number  counted 
as  Negroes  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  or  from  one- 
fourth  to  one-third  of  the  total.  The  teachers  in  our 
schools  do  not  find  marked  differences  between  the  full- 
bloods  and  the  mixed.  The  leaders  of  the  Negroes  in 
America  like  Booker  Washington  and  W.  E.  B.  DuBois 
are  mixed-bloods  while  others  like  Kelly  Miller  and  E.  R. 
Moton  are  pure  Negroes.  Whenever  we  are  told  that  a 
people  of  mixed  white  and  Negro  blood  must  perish 
from  earth  let  us  not  forget  that  across  Africa  in  the 
Sudan  and  down  the  East  Coast  there  are  untold  millions 
of  people  of  just  that  descent.  Such  facts  as  Johnston 
calls  attention  to  are  often  overlooked: 

"  The  Negro  was  soon  followed  up  in  his  appropriation 
of  Africa  by  the  Caucasian  of  an  already  negrified  Mediter- 

iT  GOULD,    B.    A.    Military    and    Anthropological    Statistics    of 
American  Soldiers. 

«  HOFFMAN,  F.  L.    Race  Traits  and  Tendencies,  p.  186. 


RACE  DIFFERENCES  299 

ranean  type:  Libyans  wandered  across  the  Sahara,  dis- 
possessed the  red-skinned  pygmies  of  western  Nigeria,  ab- 
sorbed some  of  the  Forest  Negroes,  and  formed  such  hy- 
brid stocks  as  the  Songhai,  Mandingo,  Fula,  and  Nyam- 
nyam,  Hamites  (Egyptian  and  Gala)  occupied  Egypt  from 
Arabia  and  pushed  westwards  across  the  Libyan  Desert, 
mingling  freely  with  long-legged  or  short-legged  and  prog- 
nathous Negroes,  and  thus  called  into  existence  mixed 
races  like  the  Tibbu,  Nubian,  Ethiopian,  Masai,  Ando- 
robo,  Hima,  Gala,  Somali,  and  Danakil. 

"  There  has  been  much  infiltration  of  Caucasian  blood 
from  Europe  and  western  Asia  in  more  recent,  historic 
times.  Pre-Islamic  Arabs  undoubtedly  .  .  .  were  con- 
nected with  and  settled  in  Southeast  Africa  perhaps  more 
than  two  thousand  years  ago.  They  must  have  taken  to 
themselves  concubines  from  the  South  African  Negroes, 
and  these  last  —  possibly  not  yet  '  Bantu  '  in  speech  — 
may  have  already  created  the  Hottentot  hybrid  with  the 
Bushman  in  Southwest  Africa.  Then  from  A.  n.  1000  on- 
wards came  many  Arabs,  Persians,  Baluchis,  and  Hindus 
to  the  East  African  coast.  From  out  the  mingling  of  all 
these  elements  in  different  degrees  arose  the  African  peo- 
ples of  today,  very  few  of  which  are  without  some  tinge 
of  Caucasian  blood  due  to  the  White  man's  persistent  in- 
vasion of  Africa  from  —  let  us  say  —  12,000  B.  c.  to  the 
present  day."  19 

The  fact  is  wherever  we  turn  on  earth,  explain  it  as  we 
may,  that  evidences  of  uniformity  of  descent  are  only 
found  in  outlying,  remote  and  rather  inaccessible  regions 
and  that  nowhere  under  such  conditions  has  any  great 
civilization  developed.  On  the  contrary,  whenever  we 
turn  to  the  great  nations  of  the  world  we  find  every  indi- 

-    i»  JOHNSTON,  H.  H.    o.  c.,  pp.  29-30. 


300         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

cation  of  race  mixtures  far  exceeding  the  popular  belief 
of  the  people  themselves.  Whatever  the  future  may  dis- 
close there  is  now  no  evidence  worthy  of  credence  to  show 
that  the  intermarriage  of  even  the  most  widely  separated 
races  results  in  physically  inferior  offspring.  This  state- 
ment is  by  no  means  to  be  interpreted  that  the  fusion  of 
the  races  is  always  wise  or  desirable.  Whether  favored  or 
not,  whether  prohibited  by  law  or  not,  it  is  taking  place. 
Endless  statements  could  be  cited  either  for  or  against  the 
action.  Because  of  the  strong  feeling  in  America  against 
the  marriage  of  whites  and  Japanese  the  following  state- 
ment attributed  to  Professor  Baelz,  a  German  physician 
at  the  Tokyo  University,  is  worthy  of  notice. 

"  On  this  question  I  may  speak  with  a  certain  degree 
of  authority,  having  been  the  first,  and  in  fact  up  to  this 
day  the  only  scientist,  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  the 
comparison  of  the  physical  qualities  of  the  Japanese  and 
European  races.  Besides,  as  a  physician  in  Tokyo  during 
thirty  years,  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  examining  an 
unusually  large  number  of  (Eurasians),  and  I  have  paid 
particular  attention  to  them.  The  result  of  my  observa- 
tions is  that  they  are  a  healthy  set  of  people,  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  no  one  of  the  common  arguments 
against  them  is  supported  by  science.  They  are  on  the 
average  well  built,  and  show  no  tendency  to  organic  disease 
more  than  Europeans  or  Japanese  do.  This  is  the  more  re- 
markable as  many  of  them  grow  up  under  unfavorable  cir- 
cumstances, the  father  often  having  left  them  with  little 
money  to  the  care  of  a  mother  who  has  no  authority  over 
them.  This  is  a  particularly  important  point  if  the  moral 
qualities  are  considered.  In  Europe  too,  we  know  that 
abandoned  illegitimate  children  very  often  turn  out  badly, 
and  a  fair  comparison  must  take  that  into  serious  consider- 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  301 

ation.  To  make  quite  sure  about  the  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities  of  the  (Eurasian),  I  have  asked  the  opinion 
of  the  man  who  is  more  than  any  other  qualified  to  give  an 
authoritative  judgment  —  Mr.  Heinrich,  director  of  the 
School  of  the  Morning  Star.  He  has  had  in  his  classes, 
side  by  side,  Europeans,  Japanese,  and  almost  all  the  male 
half-breeds  in  Tokyo.  His  opinion  is,  that  if  properly 
brought  up  and  well-looked  after,  the  half-breeds  are  mor- 
ally, and  intellectually  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  children 
of  both  races.  As  a  rule  they  are  taller  and  more  robust 
than  the  Japanese,  and  in  every  branch  of  learning  they  are 
fully  up  to  the  standard  of  their  fellow-scholars."  20 

The  attempt  to  build  a  biological  foundation  for  the 
walls  of  race  prejudice  has  been  most  unsuccessful,  it  seems 
to  me.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Whites  a  Negro  is  a  Negro, 
and  a  mulatto  is  a  Negro,  but  biologically  he  is  not.  The 
Jews  are  persecuted  and  repressed  in  Europe  and  are 
discriminated  against  in  America  in  many  ways  but  their 
social  inferiority  is  not  the  result  of  physical  or  mental 
inferiority.  Biologists  warn  us  that  there  is  no  reason 
to  anticipate  the  production  of  a  superior  type  by  crossing 
two  species.  They  forget  that  this  has  happened  more 
than  once  in  the  history  of  animal  breeding,  and  they 
forget  further  that  domestic  animals  are  specialized  as 
human  races  are  not.  Moreover,  there  may  be  social  ad- 
vantages even  if  the  biological  results  are  unimportant. 
In  America  there  seem  to  be  but  two  solutions  to  our  great 
race  problem.  The  one  is  amalgamation.  The  other  is 
a  caste  system  much  like  that  of  India  with  its  denial  of 
opportunity  to  the  lower  castes,  the  consequent  destruc- 
tion of  democracy,  and  the  downfall  of  Christianity  as  now 
understood  at  least.  Can  there  be  enduring  peace  unless 

L.    The  Empires  of  the  East,  Vol.  II,  p.  772  ff. 


302         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Jew  and  Gentile  intermarry?  I  am  not  attempting  to 
solve  our  race  problems.  I  am  merely  trying  to  indicate 
that  there  is  much  more  involved  in  them  than  the  mere 
desire  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  stock  on  the  one  hand, 
or  the  emotional  wish  to  extend  social  equality  to  a  group 
as  yet  inferior  on  the  other.  The  intermarriage  of  two 
individuals  of  two  races  must  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  their  own  qualities  just  as  if  they  were  of  one  group. 
In  other  words  there  are  individuals  of  all  grades  in  all 
groups.  The  obvious  social  difficulties  which  grow  out 
of  the  marriage  with  one  of  a  socially  inferior  group  are 
enough  to  make  any  wise  person  hesitate  before  he  imposes 
such  a  handicap  on  his  children.  Particularly  is  this  true 
when  some  physical  trait  like  color  will  serve  to  mark 
out  the  child  regardless  of  its  other  characteristics.  No 
thoughtful  person,  then,  it  seems  to  me,  can  today  advocate 
the  intermarriage  of  white  and  black  as  a  solution  of  the 
present  difficulties.  On  the  other  hand  why  decree  by 
law  that  the  thing  may  not  occur  when  it  is  perfectly  pos- 
sible that  in  years  to  come  such  intermarriage  will  seem 
both  natural  and  desirable  ?  Just  such  a  change  of  senti- 
ment has  come  as  regards  the  Indian. 

There  now  remains  to  be  considered  some  of  the  at- 
tempts to  classify  the  various  human  races.  This  might 
be  done  on  a  basis  of  language  or  any  other  social  insti- 
tution. We  are,  however,  primarily  concerned  with  the 
physical  side  of  man  so  may  disregard  the  other  bases. 
Evidently  a  complete  and  accurate  classification  was  not 
possible  before  the  nineteenth  century  because  of  the  ex- 
tent of  ignorance  of  other  parts  of  the  world.  Indeed 
it  is  not  entirely  possible  today.  When  man  appeared, 
where,  whether  in  one  or  many  places,  we  do  not  know. 
His  early  wanderings  cannot  be  traced.  We  know  little  of 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  303 

the  early  mixtures  that  took  place,  hence  we  must  depend 
upon  the  presence  of  characters  which  seem  persistent. 

Earlier  peoples  were  not  greatly  concerned  with  outsid- 
ers. They  called  them  "  barbarians  "  or  "  gentiles  "  or 
names  of  like  import.  They  thought  that  they  had  been 
created  by  other  gods  and  were  probably  inferior  peoples. 
They  thought  all  sorts  of  monsters  existed  only  a  few  miles 
away  from  their  own  centers  and  sometimes  they  described 
them  in  detail,  though  not  always  with  accuracy.  Indeed 
the  word  race  was  hardly  used  until  the  time  of  Buffon, 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  who  employed  it  to  designate  a 
variety  developed  under  the  influence  of  soil  and  climate 
and  changing  as  they  changed.  We  are  not  surprised  then 
that  the  first  classifications  were  defective. 

One  of  the  oldest,  taught  even  today  in  some  places,  was 
based  upon  the  account  of  the  flood  and  the  survival  of  the 
three  sons  of  Noah.  Shem  became  the  ancestor  of  the 
Semites,  Ham  was  the  progenitor  of  the  Negroes  who  were 
compelled  by  his  sins  to  have  dark  skins  and  be  "  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  "  while  Japhet  started  the 
long  line  of  the  rest  of  us,  and  in  some  vague  way  most 
of  the  rest  of  us  were  Aryans. 

Linnaeus  divided  mankind  into  three  great  sections: 
sapiens  (educated  or  civilized)  ;  ferus  (wild),  and  mon- 
strosus  (monster).  Among  the  sapiens  he  put  the  Euro- 
pean, whom  he  describes  as  light  with  fair  hair  and  blue 
eyes  and  as  active,  shrewd,  inventive,  fond  of  closely  fitting 
garments  and  respectful  to  the  authority  of  law ;  the  Amer- 
ican, reddish  in  color  with  black  hair  and  beardless,  stub- 
born, contented,  fond  of  liberty,  who  paints  his  body  and 
is  ruled  by  habit;  the  Asiatic,  with  yellowish  color,  dark 
hair  and  brown  eyes,  whose  character  is  cruel  and  avari- 
cious, fond  of  show,  likes  to  dress  in  flowing  garments  and 


304         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

is  ruled  by  prevailing  opinions ;  and  the  African,  with  his 
black  woolly  hair,  flat  nose  and  thick  lips,  who  is  cunning 
and  indolent,  greases  his  body  and  is  governed  by  despot- 
ism. His  conception  of  the  ferus  or  wild  man  was  ap- 
parently gotten  from  the  stories  of  children  who  had  been 
taken  and  reared  by  animals  while  his  knowledge  of  mon- 
sters is  equally  vague.  Among  the  last  he  puts  (1)  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Alps  who  are  small,  active  and  timid; 
(2)  those  having  but  one  testicle,  the  Hottentots;  (3)  the 
beardless,  many  American  tribes;  (4)  those  with  deformed 
conical  heads,  the  Chinese;  and  (5)  the  oblique-headed 
with  skulls  flattened  in  front,  the  Canadians. 

A  little  later  Blumenbach  used  the  word  Caucasians  to 
designate  the  white  colored  peoples  who  had  originated,  as 
he  thought,  in  the  Caucasus  Mountains.  He  made  a  classi- 
fication, which  with  some  modifications  is  still  in  common 
use. 

1.  The   Caucasians:   white-skinned,   with  red  cheeks, 
brown,  or  brownish  hair,  round  skull,  oval  face,  smooth 
forehead,  narrow,  slightly  aquiline  nose,  small  mouth,  per- 
pendicular front  teeth,  face  symmetrical  and  agreeable. 
All  Europeans  except  the  Finns  and  Lapps ;  Asians  to  the 
Caspian,  Obi  and  Ganges  and  north  Africans. 

2.  The  Mongols:  yellowish  sallow  skin,  straight  thin 
hair  on  the  head,  almost  square  skull,  nose  small,  upturned, 
narrow  eyes,  projecting  cheek  bones.     All  Asians  except 
the  Caucasians  and  Malays,  Finns,  Lapps  and  Eskimo. 

3.  The  Ethiopians:  dark  brown  skin,  dark  curly  hair, 
long  heads,  broad  nose  with  upper  jaw  prominent,  pro- 
truding lips.     All  Africans  except  those  of  the  north. 

4.  The  Americans:  copper  color,  thin  straight  black 
hair,  face  broad  but  not  flat,  skull  often  deformed.     All 
Americans  save  the  Eskimo. 


KACE  DIFFERENCES  305 

5.  The  Malays:  chestnut  brown  skin,  black  hair,  thick 
and  curly ;  broad  nose  with  thick  lips,  upper  jaw  slightly 
projecting.  Malay  Peninsula  and  many  of  the  Pacific  Is- 
lands. 

Such  a  scheme  has  definite  merit.  The  groups  are 
few  in  number  and  they  roughly  correspond  to  certain 
superficial  physical  traits  like  color  and  to  great  geographi- 
cal areas.  Cuvier  held  to  three  main  groups  with  many 
subdivisions,  while  Leibnitz  and  Kant  compromised  on 
four.  Agassiz  later  placed  the  number  at  nine  and  more 
recent  students  have  claimed  that  one  or  two  hundred 
groups  would  have  to  be  recognized. 

St.  Hilaire  tried  to  introduce  a  new  basis  by  classifying 
men  as  orthognathic  (oval  face  with  vertical  jaws,  i.e.,  Eu- 
ropeans) ;  eurignathic  (high  cheek  bones,  i.e.,  Mongols) ; 
prognathic  (projecting  jaws,  i.e.,  Negroes)  and  eurigna- 
thic and  prognathic  (i.e.,  Hottentots).  F.  Mueller  sought 
to  find  a  basis  in  the  hair,  making  the  first  division  the 
ulotrichi  (woolly-haired)  and  the  second  the  lesotrichi 
(straight-haired).  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  recently 
considerable  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  hair  under  the 
belief  that  it  is  one  of  the  very  persistent  characters. 

Huxley  admitted  four  types : 

1.  The  Xanthochroic  type :  fair  with  blue  or  gray  eyes, 
bearded,  with  much  hair  on  body.     Most  of  Europe,  the 
southern  part  being  filled  with  brunettes,  a  cross  with  some 
darker  type  while  in  the  East  there  is  a  Mongolian  cross. 

2.  The  Mongolian  type:  short,  thick-set,  brown  skin, 
black  hair,  scanty  beard,  pronounced  round  skull,  small 
nose,  oblique  looking  eyes.     Entire  region  east  of  a  line 
from  Lapland  to  Siam.     Different  types  are  the  American 
Indians  (long-headed),  Chinese  and  Japanese,  and  Poly- 
nesians, probably  the  results  of  crosses. 


306         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

3.  The  Negroid  type:  eyes  and  skin  brown  or  black, 
hair  usually  black,  short  and  woolly,  projecting  jaw.     Sa- 
hara to  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

4.  The  Australian  type:  long-headed,  prominent  eye- 
brows,   unusually    large    teeth.     Tall;    skin,    chocolate 
brown;  black  hair,  long  and  woolly.     Australia,  Deccan 
and  Hindustan. 

It  is  worth  while  to  present  one  of  the  most  recent  clas- 
sifications in  more  extended  fashion  and  for  this  I  have 
selected  that  of  Professor  F.  H.  Giddings  of  Columbia 
University. 
I.  The  Australian-African  Group. 

Characteristics:  black  skin,  long-headed,  jaws  pro- 
jecting, woolly  hair,  elliptical  in  cross-section. 
Area  of  distribution:  Australia  and  Africa  south  of 

the  equator. 
II.  The  Polynesian-European  Group. 

Characteristics:  fair  skin,   skull  neither  markedly 
long  nor  round,  jaws  straight,  straight  or  wavy 
hair,  slightly  elliptical  in  cross-section. 
Area  of  distribution:  broad  zone  from  Polynesia 
north  westward  through  southwestern  Asia  and 
northern  Africa  and  most  of  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope. 
III.  The  Asian-American  Group. 

Characteristics:  yellow  or  red  skin,  brachycephalic, 
narrow-eyed,  lank  or  straight-haired  (cylindrical 
in  cross-section). 

Area    of    distribution:    eastern   Asia    and   western 

America,  chiefly  north  of  the  equator  along  the 

semicircular  shore-line  of  Asia  and  America. 

"  The    Polynesian-European    group    occupies    at    the 

present  time  that  zone  of  territory  which  extends  from 


RACE  DIFFEKENCES  307 

Java  on  the  southeast  to  the  valley  of  the  Thames  on  the 
northwest.  In  this  zone  the  traces  of  earliest  man  have 
been  found.  If  these  traces  indicate  that  this  region  was 
his  original  habitat,  then  man  spread  over  the  earth  start- 
ing from  this  gone.  If  contingents  of  the  original  race 
wandered  from  this  zone  into  new  localities,  and  were 
prevented  from  crossing  by  environmental  barriers  they 
would  become  different  from  the  original  type,  the  one 
having  wandered  north  into  a  colder  clime,  the  other  south 
into  a  warmer  clime.  .  .  .  This  we  find  to  be  true.  The 
round-headed,  lank-haired  peoples  of  the  North  are  sepa- 
rated by  an  intermediate  type  from  the  long-headed  curly- 
haired  peoples  of  the  South. 

"  Now  by  the  same  reasoning,  the  original  group,  the 
intermediate  and  plastic  type,  would  become  in  some  way 
differentiated  according  as  part  went  southeast  and  north- 
west, and  these  northwestern  and  southeastern  groups 
would  tend  to  differ  somewhat  although  transmitting  the 
characteristic  head  form.  That  is,  different  sections  of 
the  same  general  racial  group  would  show  slight  variations 
from  the  stable  peculiarities  of  the  larger  racial  groups 
of  which  they  were  parts.  This  has  been  the  case.  In  the 
southeast  the  brunette  of  southern  Europe  becomes  the 
brown  in  Polynesia,  while  in  the  northwest  the  prevail- 
ing white  of  Europe  becomes  the  pronounced  blond  of  the 
Baltic  regions.  In  the  far  southeast,  the  characteristics 
of  long  head  and  kinky  hair  are  more  extreme  in  Australia 
and  Tasmania,  because  of  long  isolation.  Also  in  the  other 
direction  there  are  blacks  with  long  heads  and  kinky  hair, 
blending  off  in  Africa  to  the  Polynesian  type  from  inter- 
breeding. .  .  . 

"  The  European  part  of  this  race  may  be  divided  into 
two  main  divisions.  One  of  these  is  relatively  long- 


308         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

headed  and  dark-complexioned;  this  division  has  been 
called  the  Eur-African  group.  The  other  is  relatively 
round-headed,  light-complexioned,  and  inhabits  Europe 
west  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  and  Asia  immediately  east  of 
the  Ural  Mountains ;  this  division  has  been  called  the  Eur- 
Asian."  We  may  classify  these  as: 
"  I.  The  Eur-African  Race  (relatively  long-headed,  blond 
to  dark  complexion). 

1.  The   Baltic   Race.     Characteristics:   light  blond 

type,  very  light  hair  and  blue  eyes,  long  head 
and  face,  tall  stature,  narrow  aquiline  nose. 
Area  of  distribution:  the  section  of  northwestern 
Europe  near  the  Baltic  Sea, —  the  general  area 
inhabited  by  the  Teutonic  peoples. 

2.  The  Mediterranean  Race.     Characteristics:  bru- 

nette type,  hair  dark  brown  or  black  and  eyes 
dark,  head  and  face  long,  medium  and  slender 
stature,  rather  broad  nose. 

Area  of  distribution :  in  southern  Europe  south  of 
the    Pyrenees,    along   the    southern    coast    of 
France  and  Italy,  including  Sicily,  and  Sar- 
dinia. 
II.  The  Eur-Asian  Eace  (relatively  round-headed). 

1.  The  Alpine  Race.  Characteristics :  chestnut  hair 
with  hazel  gray  eyes,  round  head  and  broad  face, 
medium  stocky  stature,  and  variable  but  rather 
broad,  heavy  nose.  (A  type  intermediate  be- 
tween the  Baltic  and  the  Mediterranean.)  Its 
peculiarities  appear  most  frequently  when  the 
type  is  found  in  greatest  purity,  isolated  in  a 
mountain  area.  The  ancient  Alpine  race  may 
have  been  exterminated  in  the  lowlands  and  the 


EACE  DIFFERENCES  309 

remnants  driven  into  the  mountain  fastnesses 
by  the  energetic  Baltic  race. 
Area   of   distribution:   central   France   and   the 

southern  Alpine  highlands. 

2.  The  Danubean  Kace.  Characteristics:  blond, 
often  red-haired,  blue-eyed,  round  head  and  rel- 
atively broad  face,  of  tall,  heavy  build.  This 
race  has  played  a  most  important  part  in  his- 
tory, variously  called  the  Acheans,  the  Hellenic 
Greeks,  and  the  Belgse. 

Area  of  distribution:  the  northern  Alpine  high- 
lands, and  the  entire  Danube  Valley."  21 
To  understand  Giddings'  scheme  certain  assumptions 
must  be  kept  in  mind.  He  believes  that  the  white  group 
represents  more  closely  than  any  other  the  primitive  un- 
differentiated  type  of  humanity.  Hence  we  find  a  great 
medley  of  characters  in  the  group  today,  and  hence  this 
group  has  always  been  more  subject  to  variation  than  the 
others.  The  black  and  yellow  types  have  split  off  from  the 
parent  stock  at  some  early  time  and  have  through  natural 
selection  in  favorable  environments  developed  their  pecul- 
iarities. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

AMMON,  O.    Die  Natuerliche  Auslese  beim  Menschen.    1893. 
BOAS,  F.    The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man.    1911. 

"  Changes  in  Bodily  Form  of  Descendants  of  Immi- 

grants.   1911. 
BROCA,   P.    Hybridity   in   the   Genus   Homo    (English   text). 

1865. 

CHAPIN,  F.  S.    Social  Evolution.    Rev.  Ed.  1915. 
COMMONS,  J.  R.    Races  and  Immigrants  in  America.    1907. 
FINOT,  J.    Race  Prejudice.    1907. 

21  CHAPIN,  F.  S.     Social  Evolution,  p.  209  S. 


310         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

FIRST  INTERNATIONAL  RACE  CONGRESS  REPORT.    London,  1913. 

HOFFMANN,  F.  L.    Race  Traits  and  Tendencies.    1896. 

HUTCHINSON,  W.  (Ed.).    Customs  of  the  World.    1913  (?). 

JOHNSTON,  H.  H.    The  Negro  in  the  New  World.    1910. 

KEANE,  A.  H.    The  World's  Peoples.    1908. 

DE  LAPOUGE,  G.  V.    Les  Selections  Sociales.    1896. 

RATZEL,  F.    History  of  Mankind.    1898. 

REIBMAYR,    A.    Inzucht    und    Vennischung    beim    Menschen. 

1897. 

RIPLEY,  W.  Z.    The  Races  of  Europe.    1899. 
SCHULTZ,  A.  P,    Race  or  Mongrel.    1908. 


-TPPS     TNSTJTr 

FOR 
•lOLOGIC/ 


CHAPTER  VIII 
SEX  DIFFEKENCES 

In  all  ages  and  places  the  human  race  has  thought  of 
itself  as  divided  into  two  great  groups,  male  and  female. 
This  dividing  line  of  sex  not  only  runs  through  the  physical 
organs  and  functions,  but  extends  into  the  fields  of  work, 
of  play,  of  education,  of  government,  of  religion,  and  is 
not  infrequently  to  be  traced  in  the  forecasts  of  the  fu- 
ture life.  So  many  of  our  emotional  interests  have  come 
to  center  about  sex,  so  many  traditions  and  superstitions, 
so  much  prejudice  and  nonsense  find  their  basis  and  sup- 
port therein,  that  the  student  who  would  separate  the 
chaff  from  the  wheat  and  learn  to  what  extent  popular 
ideas  are  supported  by  the  facts  has  a  task  of  almost  end- 
less difficulty  before  him.  How  hard  this  task  is  will  be 
quickly  realized  by  the  one  who  makes  the  attempt.  He 
will  find  that  a  very  large  part  of  that  which  is  offered 
as  evidence  is  so  clearly  the  product  of  preconceived  ideas 
that  it  cannot  be  taken  seriously.  Much  of  the  rest  is  so 
plainly  based  upon  one  or  two  cases  that  it  is  not  safe  to 
trust  it.  Moreover,  the  distinguishing  of  things  resulting 
from  physical  nature  and  those  due  to  social  customs  and 
standards  is  often  impossible.  Finally,  within  the  last 
decade  biology  has  compelled  the  acceptance  of  a  new  at- 
titude towards  many  matters  which  formerly  seemed  set- 
tled, and  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  for  a  review 
of  all  the  older  evidence.  It  must  be  recognized  then  that 
many  of  the  statements  here  made  are  to  be  considered  as 

tentative  and  probable,  rather  than  certain  and  final. 

311 


312         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

To  the  average  man  the  division  into  sexes  seems  so 
definitely  a  fixed  scheme  of  nature  that  it  conies  almost  as 
a  shock  to  learn  that  in  thousands  of  the  lowest  forms 
of  life  there  is  no  such  phenomenon.  After  a  time  nature 
seems  to  be  experimenting  to  see  if  it  offers  any  advan- 
tages. Plant  lice  have  a  generation  in  which  both  sexes 
are  present  and  then  several  in  which  the  males  are  miss- 
ing. The  hickory  phylloxera  has  a  peculiar  history.  In 
the  spring  females  only  appear  and  lay  their  eggs  in  a 
leaf  ball.  These  eggs  may  be  either  large  or  small  but 
only  one  sort  comes  from  a  given  individual.  From  the 
large  eggs  females  are  hatched;  from  the  small,  males. 
After  fertilization  these  females  lay  the  large  eggs  which 
last  over  winter  to  renew  the  cycle  in  the  spring.  Other 
forms,  like  earthworms,  snails  and  leeches,  are  hermaph- 
roditic, and  this  condition  is  believed  to  occur  in  animals 
as  high  as  birds  and  mammals.  Curious  and  bizarre 
combinations  exist  such  as  the  blending  in  one  individual 
of  the  characters  of  both  sexes,  known  as  gynandromor- 
phism,  which  is  found  in  insects,  occasionally,  and  birds, 
rarely.  In  such  a  case  one  side  of  the  body  has  the  color 
and  other  characteristics  of  the  male ;  the  other  side,  those 
of  the  female.  A  bullfinch  has  been  taken  with  a  line 
on  the  breast  sharply  separating  the  red  feathers  of  the 
cock  on  one  side  from  the  brown  feathers  of  the  hen  on 
the  other.  Neither  side  was  sexually  perfect.  It  has  al- 
ready been  mentioned  that  the  unfertilized  eggs  of  bees 
develop  into  drones,  the  fertilized  eggs  into  workers  and 
queens.  Though  true  hermaphrodites  are  not  found  in 
the  highest  types  of  life,  there  are  all  sorts  of  imperfect 
combinations  and  malformations  which  remind  us  of 
earlier  forms.  We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
bisexual  forms  offer  some  marked  advantages  over  the  uni- 


SEX  DIFFEKENCES  313 

sexual  forms,  and  it  would  seem  that  these  lie  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  combining  various  strains  of  ancestry. 

If  we  accept  the  suggestion  that  sex  is  determined  by 
the  presence  or  absence  of  given  determiners  in  the  germ 
cells  we  naturally  anticipate  that  the  number  of  boys  and 
girls  born  will  be  equal.  Curiously  enough  this  does  not 
seem  to  be  quite  true  if  our  records  are  to  be  trusted.  It 
seems  that  about  105  boys  are  born  to  100  girls,  the  exact 
figures  for  various  European  countries  being:  England, 
103.6;  France,  104.6;  Germany,  105.2;  Spain,  108.3. 
If  still-born  infants  are  included  the  ratio  is  higher: 
Germany,  128.3;  Italy,  131.1;  and  France,  142.2.  If 
abortions  are  counted  the  difference  appears  to  be  even 
greater.1  We  do  not  know  how  to  explain  these  returns. 
They  do  not  necessarily  upset  our  faith  in  the  determina- 
tion of  sex  by  the  chromosomes,  for  it  may  be  that  the 
cells  from  which  males  will  result  are  more  active  and  per- 
sistent. It  may  be  that  they  are  less  subject  to  untoward 
circumstances.  Sex  ratios  are  very  uneven  in  many  forms 
of  life.  Bees  and  wasps  have  few  males.  In  some  spe- 
cies of  nematode  worms  there  is  often  less  than  one  male 
to  one  hundred  females  and  the  females  are  really  her- 
maphrodites. Hybrids  of  guinea  fowl  and  pheasants  pro- 
duced 74  males  to  13  females  and  crosses  between  different 
species  of  the  same  genus  72  males  to  18  females.  This 
inequality  in  the  number  of  males  and  females  persists 
throughout  life,  though  women  are  often  in  the  majority 
in  the  older  age  groups.  Probably  conditions  of  life  and 
labor  have  much  to  do  with  these  later  differences,  and 
they  are  not  therefore  sexual  in  origin.  The  following  fig- 
ures from  the  Census  of  the  United  States  show  this  in- 
equality : 

i  MOEGAN,  T.  H.    Heredity  and  Sex,  pp.  230  ff. 


314 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


Native  Whites  of  Native  Parentage 


CENSUS  1900 
Males  Females 


CENSUS  1910 
Males  Females 


5,396,992 

5,242,109 

6  295  467 

6111  830 

rs  4,487,432 

4,407,911 

5,253,184 

5,160,154 

rs  3,538,731 

3,475,520 

4,379,511 

4,352,485 

rs  2,564,600 

2,394,331 

3,321,708 

3,125,274 

rs  2,034,079 

1,858,079 

2,355,817 

2,166,544 

-s  1,417,349 

1,339,072 

1,829,988 

1,610,602 

•8  845,434 

840,576 

1,106,175 

1,052,866 

•8  390,682 

394,168 

495,889 

506,528 

•s  92,079 

103,777 

114,444 

132,773 

•s  5,510 

8,507 

8,086 

11,302 

id  over.      129 
76,830 

264 
35,201 

180 
68,769 

259 
28,740 

Age  Groups 
Under  10 
10-19  years 
20-29   years 
30-39   years 
40-49   years 
50-59  years 
60-69  years 
70-79   years 
80-89   years 
90-99  years 
100  yrs.  : 
Unknown 


Total     20,849,847       20,099,515       25,229,218       24,259,357 

For  purposes  of  analysis  we  may  conveniently  divide  the 
differences  between  the  sexes  into  three  groups.  We  may 
call  these:  (1)  the  primary  organs  of  sex;  (2)  secondary 
sexual  characters;  (3)  activities  based  on  sex. 

Among  the  many  species  of  animals  it  is  extremely  dif- 
ficult for  us  to  distinguish  the  sexes.  In  countless  cases 
the  eggs  are  fertilized  after  they  leave  the  body  of  the 
female  and  practically  no  attention  is  paid  to  the  young 
by  either  parent.  With  each  upward  step  on  the  ladder 
of  life  the  relation  between  old  and  young  is  both  longer 
and  more  intimate.  No  one  statement  of  this  relationship 
can  be  satisfactory  for  the  habits  of  different  species 
vary.  Among  birds  both  sexes  usually  share  in  the  incu- 
bation of  eggs  and  the  care  of  the  young,  although  there 
are  some  cases  in  which  both  sexes  shirk  this  duty  and 
leave  it  to  other  species.  When  the  mammals  are  reached 
the  connection  between  mother  and  child  has  become  pe- 
culiarly intimate  and  her  body  shows  organic  differences 
from  that  of  the  male.  The  mother  must  shelter  and 
nourish  the  unborn  child  and  thus  certain  demands  are 
made  upon  it  which  are  utterly  unknown  to  the  male. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  315 

Aside  from  the  reproductive  organs  there  are  many 
physical  differences  commonly  known  as  secondary  sexual 
characters.  Some  of  these  may  be  merely  accidental  ac- 
companiments ;  others  seem  to  be  directly  sex-linked  as  if 
certain  chromosome  combinations  were  directly  responsi- 
ble. In  many  cases  it  seems  that  the  organs  of  reproduc- 
tion actually  produce  substances,  known  as  hormones, 
which  act  as  stimulants  to  growth  and  directly  cause  the 
differences  between  the  sexes.  Thus  male  guinea  pigs  and 
rats  have  been  castrated  and  female  ovaries  inserted. 
These  ovaries  though  merely  placed  under  the  skin  lived 
and  grew.  "  None  of  these  animals  developed  male  sec- 
ondary sexual  characters;  the  male  external  genitalia,  for 
instance,  remained  immature,  and  the  body  assumed  the 
form  of  the  smaller  sex,  the  female.  The  growth  of  hair 
and  the  deposition  of  fat  were  in  the  direction  of  the  fe- 
male type.  The  mammary  glands,  the  nipples,  and  their 
surrounding  aureolae  were  typically  female.  None  of 
these  animals  showed  the  characteristic  male  sexual  ex- 
citability even  in  the  presence  of  a  female  in  heat.  They 
very  commonly  did  exhibit  the  '  tail-reflex '  and  the  '  pro- 
tective-reflex,' both  characteristic  of  the  female,  and  they 
were  sought  by  the  males,  though  of  course  ineffectually. 
Thus,  so  far  as  the  secondary  sexual  characters  were  con- 
cerned, a  male  animal  had  been  converted,  both  struc- 
turally and  functionally,  into  a  female.  .  .  .  For  this  rea- 
son it  is  believed  that  the  hormones  which  are  given  out 
by  the  reproductive  glands,  and  which  serve  to  excite  the 
development  of  the  secondary  sexual  characteristics,  are 
not  the  products  of  the  germ  cells  proper,  the  egg  cells 
and  sperm  cells,  but  come  from  the  interstitial  cells  which 
are  in  no  wise  concerned  with  reproduction."  2  It  seems 

2PABKEB,  G.  H.     Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  52  ff. 


316 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


likely  that  the  secretion  of  milk  in  the  breast  is  caused 
by  some  hormone  and  it  may  be  that  other  differences  be- 
tween the  sexes  have  a  like  explanation.  Oddly  enough 
we  cannot  discover  that  there  is  any  such  relation  in  the 
case  of  insects,  even  though  the  bodies  of  the  two  sexes  are 
often  unlike. 

The  most  obvious  differences  in  the  human  sexes  are: 
(1)  the  larger  size  and  greater  strength  of  the  male;  (2) 
the  different  proportions  of  the  body,  particularly  in  the 
shape  of  the  pelvis;  (3)  the  different  distribution  of  hair 
on  the  body;  (4)  the  difference  in  the  voice  after  ma- 
turity, resulting  from  the  growth  of  the  larynx. 

Studies  in  England  as  well  as  in  America  indicate  that 
from  birth  "  until  the  age  of  nine,  boys  are  above  girls 
in  height  and  weight;  at  nine  and  ten  are  slightly  under 
in  height ;  at  ten  slightly  under  in  weight ;  at  eleven  ma- 
terially lower  in  height  and  weight;  at  fourteen  boys 
are  slightly  heavier  than  girls ;  at  fifteen  taller  than  girls. 
In  other  words  the  pubertal  acceleration  of  growth  occurs 
about  three  years  earlier  in  girls  than  boys." 3  It  is 
claimed  by  many  students  that  the  heads  of  boys  are  al- 
ways larger  than  those  of  girls  despite  the  superiority  of 
the  latter  in  weight  and  height  during  the  early  teens. 
The  following  table  4  shows  the  relative  growth  of  school- 
boys and  girls  at  Battle  Creek,  Michigan : 


Age 

Height 

Degree  of 
Difference 

Age 

Weight 

Degree  of 
Difference 

8 

Boys  . 
Girls 

124.07 
122.18 

•f  1.89 

10 

Boys 
Girls 

28.40 
28.13 

+    .27 

9 

B     ... 

128.00 

—    .62 

11 

B    ... 

30.77 

—  1.22 

G    ... 

128.62 

G    ... 

31.98 

10 

B     ... 

131.80 

—    .35 

12 

B    ... 

34.20 

—  1.52 

G    ... 

132.15 

G    ... 

35.72 

a  ELLIS,  H.     Man  and  Woman,  pp.  32-36. 

4  HASTINGS,  W.  W.     In  Proceedings  Conference  on  Race  Better- 
ment, p.  618 ff. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES 


317 


Age 

Height 

Degree  of 
Difference 

Age 

Weight 

Degree  of 
Difference 

11 

B 

136.06 

-1.64 

.13 

B    ... 

38.25 

—  3.50 

G 

137.70 

G    ... 

41.75 

12 

B 
G 

142.10 
144.36 

—  2.23 

15 

B    ... 
G    ... 

47.83 
47.50 

+    .33 

13 

B 

146.77 

—  4.53 

G 

151.30 

14 

B 

153.14 

—  2.26 

G 

155.40 

15 

B 

158.70 

+  2. 

G 

156.70 

The  best  records  we  have  indicate  that  the  onset  of  pu- 
berty causes  decided  changes  in  the  rate  of  growth  of 
the  two  sexes  and  causes  the  girls  to  mature  more  rapidly 
than  the  boys.  It  so  happens  that  this  corresponds  with 
popular  observation  the  world  over. 

To  what  extent  the  difference  in  strength  as  shown 
by  muscular  tests  or  athletic  records  is  due  to  nature,  to 
what  extent  to  differences  in  daily  life,  in  training  and  in 
ideals  it  is  hard  to  determine.  There  seems  to  be  no 
question  that  man  is  stronger.  In  the  animal  kingdom 
this  question  is  in  doubt,  for  in  a  few  cases  at  least  the 
female  is  larger.  Manouvrier  put  the  ratio  of  muscular 
force  to  body  weight  as  87.1  for  men  and  54.5  for  women. 

In  England  the  average  lung  capacity  seems  to  be  217 
cubic  inches  for  men,  132  for  women.5  The  average 
height  of  English  men  is  put  at  67.4  inches,  of  women, 
62.7.  In  America  Sargent  found  among  college  men  and 
women  the  following  averages : 

Height  Weight  Chest          Chest  Inflated 

Men     68  in.  138  Ibs.  34  in.  37  in. 

Women 63  in.  114  Ibs.  30  in.  « 

A  comparison  of  2,300  students  at  Yale  as  compared 
with  1,600  women  at  Oberlin  gave  the  following  results: 

5  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  230. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  41. 


318         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Strength  in  kilograms  Back  Legs        Right  Forearms 

Men    153.  186.0  56.0 

Women    54.  76.5  21.4  * 

The  athletic  records  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Vassar  for  the  year  1913  were: 

Penn.  Vassar 

Hundred  yard  dash   9  %  sec.  13  sec. 

Running  high  jump 5  ft.  8%  in.  4  ft.  7*4  in. 

Running  broad  jump    23ft.  3%  in.  14ft.  6%  in. 

In  man  the  arms  and  legs  are  relatively  longer  than  in 
woman.  In  woman  the  thigh  is  decidedly  shorter;  it  is 
set  at  a  different  angle,  and  is  usually  of  larger  girth  than 
in  man.  The  shape  of  the  pelvis  is  perhaps  the  most 
striking  difference  between  the  sexes.  In  the  balance  of 
the  animal  world  there  is  no  corresponding  phenomenon. 
The  development  of  the  large,  broad  pelvis  of  woman  has 
been  accompanied  by  an  increase  in  the  size  of  the  head.8 

"  The  form  of  woman  is  rounder  and  less  variable  than 
that  of  man,  and  art  has  been  able  to  produce  a  more  nearly 
ideal  figure  of  woman  than  of  man;  at  the  same  time, 
the  bones  of  woman  weigh  less  with  reference  to  the 
body  weight  than  the  bones  of  man,  and  both  these  facts 
indicate  less  variation  and  more  constitutional  passivity 
in  woman.  The  trunk  of  woman  is  relatively  longer  than 
that  of  man,  and  her  abdomen  is  relatively  more  prom- 
inent, and  is  so  represented  in  art.  In  these  respects  she 
resembles  the  child  and  the  lower  races,  i.e.,  the  less 
developed  forms.  Ranke  states  that  the  typical  adult 
male  form  is  characterized  by  a  relatively  shorter  trunk, 
relatively  longer  arms,  legs,  hands  and  feet,  and  rela- 
tively to  the  long  upper  arms  and  thighs  by  still  longer 
forearms  and  lower  legs,  and  relatively  to  the  whole  upper 

i  THOMAS,  W.  I.     Sex  and  Society,  p.  22. 
s  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  46. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  319 

extremity  by  a  still  longer  lower  extremity;  while  the 
typical  female  form  approaches  the  infantile  condition  in 
having  a  relatively  longer  trunk,  shorter  arms,  legs,  hands 
and  feet;  relatively  to  the  short  upper  arms  still  shorter 
forearms ;  and  relatively  to  short  thighs  still  shorter  lower 
legs,  and  relatively  to  the  whole  short  upper  extremity  a 
still  shorter  lower  extremity  —  a  very  striking  evidence 
of  the  ineptitude  of  woman  for  the  expenditure  of  physi- 
ological energy  through  motor  action."  9 

Among  many  races  there  is  a  marked  growth  of  hair  on 
the  face  of  the  mature  man  which  is  entirely  lacking  on 
the  face  of  the  woman,  though  the  latter  often  preserves 
the  coat  of  down,  the  lanugo,  which  is  found  early  in 
life.  Woman's  hair  is  massed  on  her  head  and  seems  to 
be  thicker  and  to  grow  longer  than  man's.  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  woman  is  less  likely  to  become  bald. 

The  breaking  of  the  boy's  voice  at  puberty  is  well  known. 
Due  to  the  growth  of  the  larynx  the  voice  becomes  stronger 
and  deeper  while  there  is  little  change  in  that  of  a  woman. 
The  thyroid  gland,  which  lies  just  below  and  behind  the 
vocal  organs,  is  much  larger  and  stronger  in  the  woman.10 

The  differences  in  the  skull  are  slight.  The  glabella, 
or  bony  projection  over  the  nose,  and  the  superciliary 
ridges  are  more  marked  in  men.  These  overhanging 
brows  increase  with  age.  The  frontal  air  sinuses  are 
smaller  in  women.  Some  bosses  on  the  head  remain  more 
prominent  with  women,  but  the  man  has  thicker  and 
stronger  skull  bones  and  the  muscular  prominences  are 
more  developed.11 

It  is  claimed  that  in  young  infants  the  male  brain  is 

»  THOMAS,  W.  I.    o.  c.,  pp.  20-21. 

10  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  266. 

11  Ibid.,  pp.  78-80. 


320         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

already  heavier,  400  grams  to  380.  The  brain  grows 
during  childhood,  reaching  its  maximum  weight  in  women 
at  about  the  age  of  20,  while  in  men  the  maximum  is 
reached  some  time  between  20  and  30.  Thereafter  it 
probably  decreases  slowly  and  falls  rapidly  in  women  be- 
tween the  ages  of  50  and  60,  the  marked  decline  for  men 
coming  later  between  the  ages  of  60  and  70.  From  the 
age  of  20  to  60  the  male  brain  averages  some  145  grams 
heavier  than  the  female,  after  the  age  of  60  some  173 
grams.12  The  following  table  gives  the  results  of  many 

studies : 

BRAIN  WEIGHT  IN  GRAMMES 

Observer  Men  Women  Difference 

Wagner     1410  1262  148 

Huschke    1424  1272  152 

Broca     1365  1211  154 

Topinard     1360  1250  110 

Bischoff    1362  1219  143 

Boyd    1354  1221  133 

Manouvrier    1353  1225  128 

Total  average  1376  1237  139  " 

Trouble  comes  when  we  attempt  to  interpret  these  re- 
sults. Man's  height  in  comparison  with  woman's  may  be 
stated  as  100  to  93.  On  this  basis  the  brain  weights  are 
as  100  to  90  and  man's  brain  appears  to  be  relatively 
heavier.  If,  however,  we  take  the  body  weight  as  the 
basis  the  results  are  reversed.  Man's  body  weight  as  com- 
pared to  that  of  woman  may  be  put  as  100  to  83 ;  the  brain 
weight  remaining,  of  course,  100  to  90.  Moreover  the 
brain  weight  is  relatively  fixed  while  the  body  fluctuates, 
and  in  addition  women  have  more  fat.  If  we  try  to 
eliminate  this  and  compare  on  the  basis  of  active  organic 
tissues  we  should  have  to  put  the  ratio  as  100  to  70  and 

"MoEBros,   P.   J.     Ueber    den   phyaiologiachen   Schwachainn   dea 
Weibea,  pp.  1-39. 

is  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  103. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  321 

woman's  relative  superiority  in  brain  weight  would  be 
more  pronounced. 

We  are  really  ignorant  of  any  relationship  between 
weight  of  brain  and  mental  capacity,  hence,  all  deductions 
based  on  brain  weight  are  of  doubtful  value.  Two  insane 
women,  one  with  a  brain  of  1,T42  gr.,  the  other  of  1,587 
gr.,  are  reported  and  these  weights,  be  it  noticed,  are  far 
above  the  average  for  normal  men;  while  one  male  idiot 
is  said  to  have  had  a  brain  weighing  2,850  gr.  There 
seems  to  be  no  justification  in  the  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge for  assuming  that  either  sex  has  any  advantage  so 
far  as  mental  ability  is  concerned.  Even  Broca,  the 
French  anthropologist,  who  in  early  life  thought  that  man 
was  superior  in  this  regard,  later  came  to  think  that  it 
was  a  question  of  education.14 

Apparently  one  of  the  most  significant  differences  yet 
discovered  is  in  the  specific  gravity  of  the  composition  of 
the  blood.  All  observers  seem  to  agree  that  the  blood  of 
woman  contains  fewer  red  corpuscles,  while  the  specific 
gravity  is  lower. 

"  In  males  the  specific  gravity  is  about  1,066  at  birth, 
and  falls  during  the  subsequent  two  years,  being  about 
1,050  in  the  third  year;  thence  it  rises  till  about  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  when  it  is  about  1,058.  It  remains  at 
this  height  during  middle  life,  and  falls  slightly  in  old 
age. 

"  In  females  the  specific  gravity,  starting  at  about  1,066 
at  birth,  falls  in  infancy,  as  in  males,  to  about  1,049  in 
the  third  year.  Thence  it  rises  till  the  fourteenth  year, 
when  it  is  about  1,055.5.  Between  seventeen  and  forty- 
five  years  of  age  it  is  lower  than  at  the  age  of  fourteen, 
and  is  about  three  degrees  lower  than  in  men. 

i*  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  123. 


322         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

"  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  it  is  at  puberty  that  the 
sexual  difference  becomes  marked.  ...  In  old  women  the 
specific  gravity  rises."  16 

"  Men  produce  more  carbonic  acid  than  women.  Ac- 
cording to  Andral  and  Gavarret,  the  amount  of  carbon 
burnt  per  hour  is,  from  eight  to  fifteen  years  of  age,  in 
the  boy  7  gr.  8,  in  the  girl  6  gr.  4;  from  sixteen  to 
thirty,  in  the  man  11  gr.  2,  in  the  woman  6  gr.  4;  that  is 
to  say,  the  amount  consumed  in  man  rises  at  puberty  to 
nearly  double  that  consumed  in  woman."  16  As  a  result 
women  seem  to  need  less  air  than  men. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  women  stand  surgical  op- 
erations better  than  men.  The  following  table  seems  to  in- 
dicate a  difference  of  9.27  per  cent  in  favor  of  women: 

Amputations         Deaths  Deaths  per  100 

Men   1,144  441  .          38.56 

Women     284  83  29.29" 

"  Statistics  show  that  woman  is  more  susceptible  to 
many  diseases,  but  in  less  danger  than  man  when  at- 
tacked, because  of  her  anabolic  surplus,  and  also  that  the 
greatest  mortality  in  woman  is  during  the  period  of 
reproduction,  when  the  specific  gravity  of  the  blood  is 
low  and  her  anabolic  surplus  small."  18 

When  one  considers  the  hosts  of  facts,  of  which  those 
cited  are  but  a  few  from  different  fields  of  evidence,  it  is 
no  wonder  that  the  idea  is  prevalent  that  woman  is  essen- 
tially anabolic,  i.e.,  tends  to  store  up  strength  and  energy, 
while  man  is  katabolic,  i.e.,  tends  to  spend  and  dissipate 
his  energy.  The  biologist  would  say  that  this  is  a  pro- 

16  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  225. 
ie  Ibid.,  p.  230. 
IT  THOMAS,  W.  I.    o.  c.,  p.  17. 
"Ibid.,  p.  42. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  323 

vision  of  nature  to  enable  woman  to  meet  the  great  strain 
which  the  bearing  and  nursing  of  children  puts  upon  her. 
A  further  indication  of  this  is  given  in  the  relative  per- 
centages of  fat  and  muscle.  Below  are  recorded  the 
figures  for  a  woman,  a  man,  and  a  boy,  all  of  whom  died 
accidentally  and  in  good  physical  condition : 19 

Man  Woman  Boy 

Muscle    41.18  35.8  44.2 

Fat    18.2  28.2  13.9 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Ploss,  after  reviewing  the  evidence, 
concluded :  "  The  bodily  needs  of  women  are  much  less 
than  those  of  men ;  they  eat  and  drink  less ;  they  breathe 
less  and  withstand  suffocation  better,  it  is  believed.  All 
troubles,  at  least  those  which  slowly  develop  and  persist, 
all  deprivations,  they  bear  much  better  than  men ;  in  part 
at  least,  much  better  than  one  would  expect  in  considera- 
tion of  their  physical  powers.  They  better  withstand  loss 
of  blood  and  persistent  pains.  Even  the  greater  sensitive- 
ness of  the  nervous  system,  because  of  which  many  trifling 
disturbances  cause  lasting  after  effects,  appears  to  favor 
the  rapid  and  harmless  dissipation  of  the  upsetting  experi- 
ences. Thus  they  reach  old  age,  often,  under  unfavorable 
circumstances,  though  the  cases  of  extreme  old  age  reach- 
ing well  into  the  second  century  are  almost  always  men."  20 

Girls  as  indicated  reach  physical  maturity  at  a  some- 
what earlier  period  than  boys.  In  the  tropics  the  age  at 
time  of  first  menstruation  ranges  from  8  to  19,  the  maxi- 
mum being  reached  at  12 ;  while  in  cold  countries  it 
ranges  from  10  to  22,  reaching  the  maximum  at  16.  The 
oncoming  of  menstruation  marks  a  tremendous  change  in 
the  life  of  the  female  and  introduces  a  function  which  has 

is  THOMAS,  W.  I.    o.  c.,  p.  30. 
20  PLOSS,  H.     Das  Weib,  p.  38. 


324         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

no  counterpart  in  the  male.  We  have  noted  the  rhythms 
of  life  in  other  connections.  Menstruation  is  one  of  the 
most  significant  rhythms  to  be  found  among  women.  It 
is  important  not  merely  because  of  its  assumed  relation 
to  reproduction  but  because  of  its  pronounced  influence 
on  the  physical  and  mental  condition  of  the  individual. 
"  While  a  man  may  be  said,  at  all  events  relatively,  to 
live  on  a  plane,  a  woman  always  lives  on  the  upward  or 
downward  slope  of  a  curve.  ...  It  is  at  this  time,  in 
those  women  who  are  at  all  predisposed,  that  sudden 
caprices,  fits  of  ill-temper,  moods  of  depression,  impulses 
of  jealousy,  outbursts  of  self-confession,  are  chiefly  liable 
to  occur.  .  .  .  On  the  mental  side  the  irritability  or  de- 
pression may  be  so  pronounced  as  to  amount  to  insanity. 
Migraine  is  a  common  disorder  at  this  period.  Eroto- 
mania, dipsomania  and  kleptomania  are  also  specially 
liable  to  be  developed  at  this  time,  and  of  all  forms  of 
insanity  melancholia  is  the  most  liable  to  occur.  When- 
ever a  woman  commits  a  deed  of  criminal  violence  it  is 
extremely  probable  that  she  is  at  her  monthly  period;  it 
is  unfortunately  difficult  to  give  precise  figures  as  there 
is  often  neglect  to  ascertain  this  point.  Lombroso,  how- 
ever, found  that  out  of  80  women  arrested  for  opposition 
to  the  police,  or  for  assault,  only  9  were  not  at  the  men- 
strual period.  .  .  .  Krugelstein  stated  that  in  all  cases 
(10)  of  suicide  in  women  he  had  met  with,  the  act  was 
committed  during  this  period.  .  .  .  Women  in  prison, 
again,  are  apt  to  exhibit  periodic  outbreaks  of  unmotived 
and  apparently  uncontrollable  violence:  these  .  .  .  are 
especially  liable  to  occur  at  the  menstrual  epoch.  .  .  . 
Among  the  insane,  finally,  the  fact  is  universally  recog- 
nised that  during  the  monthly  period  the  insane  impulse 
becomes  more  marked,  if,  indeed,  it  may  not  appear  only 


SEX  DIFFEEENCES  325 

at  that  period.  ...  In  the  investigation  of  any  fact  in 
a  woman's  life  or  organism,  we  ought  to  know  its  exact 
position  in  the  woman's  cycle  life.  .  .  .  The  existence  of 
the  monthly  cyclic  is,  lastly,  a  factor  which  cannot  be 
ignored  in  considering  the  fitness  of  women  for  any  busi- 
ness position.  .  .  .  One  point  at  all  events  is  clear:  it  is 
no  longer  possible  to  regard  the  physiological  periodicity 
of  women,  and  the  recurring  menstrual  function,  as  the 
purely  private  concern  of  the  woman  whom  it  affects."  21 

On  this  question  the  opinion  of  those  competent  to 
testify  is  practically  unanimous.  It  has  been  attacked 
recently  by  a  woman,  Mrs.  L.  S.  Hollingworth,  in  her 
volume  entitled  "  Functional  Periodicity."  This  is  a 
monograph  based  on  only  23  cases,  but  6  of  which  were 
intensively  studied.  She  was  able  to  discover  no  marked 
change  in  mental  or  motor  reactions  during  menstruation. 
She  states  her  own  attitude  in  positive  fashion,  more  posi- 
tive it  would  seem  than  is  warranted  by  the  facts. 

"  From  whatever  source  or  sources  the  idea  of  woman's 
periodic  irresponsibility  may  have  risen,  it  is  certainly 
very  widespread.  .  .  .  Yet  the  irresponsibility  and  ineffi- 
ciency so  widely  proclaimed  in  theory  are  not  considered 
and  are  not  realized  in  practice.  The  psychologist  writes 
that  there  are  grave  and  profound  changes  in  mind  and 
body  during  menstruation ;  yet  he  makes  no  allowance  for 
this  in  his  experiments  on  women  subjects.  The  physi- 
cian declared  fifty  years  ago  that  women  were  forever 
unfitted  for  higher  education  because  of  this  function ;  yet 
the  number  of  women  graduated  from  colleges  and  uni- 
versities in  perfectly  normal  health  increases  yearly.  It 
is  positively  asserted  that  women  cannot  successfully 
pursue  professional  and  industrial  life  because  they  are 

21  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  pp.  284-298. 


326         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

incapacitated,  and  should  rest  for  one-fifth  of  their  time ; 
yet  it  is  not  proposed  that  mothers,  housekeepers,  cooks, 
scrub-women  and  dancers  should  be  relieved  periodically 
from  their  labors  and  responsibilities."  22 

Through  all  the  ages  it  has  been  believed  that  the 
phenomena  of  magic,  hypnotism,  mesmerism,  or  whatever 
they  may  be  called,  have  appeared  chiefly  among  women. 
Experts  have  claimed  that  two-thirds  of  the  hysterical 
women  could  be  hypnotized  and  only  one-fifth  of  the 
hysterical  men.  Women  are  alleged  to  dream  more  than 
men.  They  are  also  more  excitable  under  anesthetics. 
Such  phenomena  have  led  to  the  idea  that  women  are 
more  emotional  than  men;  that  is  their  feelings  are  less 
under  the  control  of  the  higher  brain  centers.  "  Pitres 
and  Regis  found  that  it  is  at  puberty,  between  11  and  15 
years  of  age,  that  obsessions  most  usually  begin  to  take 
root  in  the  mind,  and  that  it  is  between  26  and  30  (also 
a  somewhat  critical  age  in  women)  that  they  most  usually 
develop.  It  is  the  same  suggestibility  that  causes  women 
to  be  less  subject  to  nostalgia,  or  home-sickness,  than  men, 
and  more  adaptable  to  changes  of  habit  and  new  impres- 
sions." ^ 

Again  it  is  hard  to  determine  whether  the  differences 
seen  are  due  to  actual  differences  of  constitution  or  to 
social  and  mental  habits.  The  daily  life  of  the  two  sexes, 
even  in  the  emotional  and  intellectual  sphere,  is  so  different 
in  our  modern  civilizations;  the  traditions  of  the  proper 
sphere  of  activity  for  the  two  are  so  divergent,  that  we 
must  expect  different  reactions.  If,  as  now  seems  likely, 
women  are  to  enter  upon  most  if  not  all  of  the  callings 
hitherto  reserved  for  men,  it  is  very  probable  that  this 

22  HOLLINGSWOBTH,  L.  H.     Functional  Periodicity,  p.  97. 
28  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  353. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  327 

difference  in  emotionality  will  be  reduced.  Additional 
mental  training  given  to  woman  and  larger  contact  with 
the  world  will  tend  to  subdue  emotionalism  and  to 
strengthen  rational  processes.  Men  are  less  emotional  to- 
day than  were  primitive  men.  We  must  not  therefore 
exaggerate  the  physical  differences,  nor  make  the  equally 
foolish  mistake  of  ignoring  them. 

"  As  such  social  changes  tend  more  and  more  to  abolish 
artificial  sexual  differences,  thus  acting  inversely  to  the 
well-marked  tendency  observed  in  passing  from  the  lower 
to  the  higher  races,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the 
consideration  of  those  differences  which  are  not  artificial, 
and  which  no  equalization  of  social  conditions  can  entirely 
remove,  the  natural  characters  and  predispositions  which 
will  always  inevitably  influence  the  sexual  allotment  of 
human  activities.  So  long  as  women  are  unlike  in  the 
primary  sexual  characters  and  in  reproductive  function 
they  can  never  be  absolutely  alike  even  in  the  highest 
psychic  processes."  24 

It  has  been  hinted  that  there  is  an  attempt  to  explain 
these  differences  on  the  ground  that  woman  represents 
the  older  and  less  variable  type  of  structure,  while  man 
is  rather  the  testing  field  of  nature's  experiments,  and 
therefore  much  more  variable.  Albrecht  offers  the  follow- 
ing evidence  to  justify  such  a  conclusion : 

"  Many  facts  show  that  the  female  of  the  species  is  the 
more  persistent,  that  is,  stands  nearer  to  our  wild  ances- 
tors. Such  facts  are: 

1.  The  shorter  stature 

2.  The  more  frequent  occurrence  of  a  high  degree  of 

long-headedness 

3.  The  more  frequent  and  greater  prognathism 

2*  ELLIS,  H.    o.  c.,  p.  17. 


328.        THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

4.  The  greater  development  of  the  middle  incisors 

5.  The  marked  development  of  the  third  trochanter 

6.  The  less  frequent  union  of  the  first  vertebra  of  the 

coccyx  with  the  first  vertebra  of  the  sacrum 

7.  The  more  frequent  appearance  of  five  vertebrae  in 

the  coccyx 

8.  The  more  frequent  development  of  hypotrichosis 

9.  The  less  frequent  baldness 

"  As  regards  the  third  trochanter,  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
while  this  appears  in  the  human  female,  it  is  seldom  found 
in  man  and  even  more  rarely  in  the  apes.  It  is  especially 
interesting  that  in  this  regard  the  human  female  sex  shows 
itself  as  more  persistent  than  the  mass  of  the  apes,  and 
that  it  harks  back  to  a  race  that  in  any  case  was  wilder 
than  the  present  world  of  apes.  That  the  human  female, 
moreover,  is  not  only  anatomically  but  also  physiologically 
the  wilder  sex  is  revealed  by  the  fact  that  men  very  sel- 
dom bite  or  scratch  their  opponents  while  nails  and  teeth 
ever  remain  the  preferred  weapons  of  the  female."  25 

In  more  restrained  language  Thomas  concludes :  "  It 
must  be  confessed  that  the  testimony  of  anthropologists 
on  the  difference  of  variability  of  men  and  women  is  to 
be  accepted  with  great  caution.  As  a  class  they  have  gone 
on  the  assumption  that  woman  is  an  inferior  creation,  and 
have  almost  totally  neglected  to  distinguish  between  the 
congenital  characters  of  woman  and  those  acquired  as  the 
result  of  a  totally  different  relation  to  society  on  the  part 
of  women  and  men.  They  have  also  failed  to  appreciate 
the  fact  that  differences  from  man  are  not  necessarily 
points  of  inferiority,  but  adaptations  to  different  and 
specialized  modes  of  functioning.  But,  whatever  the  final 
interpretation  of  details,  I  think  the  evidence  is  sufficient 

25  PLOSS,  quoted  by,  o.  c.,  p.  6. 


SEX  DIFFERENCES  329 

to  establish  the  following  main  propositions:  Man  con- 
sumes energy  more  rapidly;  woman  is  more  conservative 
of  it.  The  structural  variability  of  man  is  mainly  toward 
motion;  woman's  variational  tendency  is  not  toward 
motion,  but  toward  reproduction.  Man  is  fitted  for  feats 
of  strength  and  bursts  of  energy ;  woman  has  more  stability 
and  endurance.  While  woman  remains  nearer  to  the  in- 
fantile type,  man  approaches  more  to  the  senile.  The 
extreme  variational  tendency  of  man  expresses  itself  in 
a  larger  percentage  of  genius,  insanity  and  idiocy ;  woman 
remains  more  nearly  normal."  26 

It  would  seem  then  that  the  differences  between  men 
and  women  are  the  differences  due  to  sex.  It  is  foolish 
to  talk  about  the  inferiority  or  superiority.  They  are 
different.  That  is  all.  In  this  connection  we  must  re- 
member that  sex  is  not  inherited  from  one  parent  any 
more  than  from  the  other.  The  sire  has  as  much  to  do 
with  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  milk  given  by  the 
cow  as  does  the  dam.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  chromo- 
somes in  each  cell  of  the  body  come  from  both  parents, 
not  from  one  alone.  It  is  impossible  then  at  the  present 
to  be  sure  that  we  understand  the  full  significance  of  sex 
differences.  It  is  evident  that  many  of  the  divisions  of 
labor  and  customs  have  been  based  upon  artificial  or,  at 
least,  insignificant  reasons. 

We  are  not  particularly  concerned  here  with  the  roles 
men  and  women  are  playing  in  present  life  or  the  theories 
as  to  the  parts  they  should  play.  There  seem  to  be  two 
prevalent  philosophies  as  to  the  activities.  The  first  is 
held  by  most  men  and  by  many  women  may  be  summed 
up  in  words  attributed  to  Martin  Luther :  "  If  a  woman 
becomes  weary,  or  at  last  dead  from  bearing,  that  matters 

ze  THOMAS,  W.  I.    o.  c.,  pp.  50-51. 


330         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

not;  let  her  only  die  from  bearing.  She  is  there  to  do 
it."  Some  advocate  the  restriction  of  woman's  activities 
to  the  care  of  children  and  flesh-pots  on  purely  sentimental 
grounds;  others,  because  they  can  conceive  of  no  higher 
or  more  important  service.  The  second  view,  earnestly 
advocated  by  an  increasing  number,  is  that  woman  must 
pass  from  the  condition  of  status  to  one  of  contract.  She 
must  decide  for  herself  what  she  is  to  do,  and  should 
have  the  right  to  motherhood  or  not  as  she  pleases. 
Whether  this  attitude  carries  a  covert  threat  to  the  future 
of  the  race  and  society  is  solely  a  matter  of  opinion.  Per- 
sonally I  see  no  reason  to  fear  for  the  permanency  of  the 
race.  What  woman  will  do  she  must  decide,  and  what 
she  will  decide,  no  man  knows. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

DONCASTER,  L.    The  Determination  of  Sex.    1915. 
ELLIS,  H.    Man  and  Woman  (4th  Ed.).    1904. 

"  Sex  in  Relation  to  Society.    1913. 

GEDDES,  P.  and  THOMSON,  J.  A.    The  Evolution  of  Sex  (2nd 

Ed.).    1901. 

HALL,  G.  S.    Adolescence.    1907. 
HOLLINGWORTH,  L.  S.    Functional  Periodicity.    1914. 
MOEBIUS,  P.  J.    Ueber  den  physiologischen  Schwachsinn  des 

Weibes.     (9  Auf.).    1908. 

MORGAN,  T.  H.    Heredity  and  Sex  (2nd  Ed.).    1915. 
PLOSS,  H.    Das  Weib  in  der  Natur  und  Voelkerkunde  (3  Auf.). 

1887. 
THOMAS,  W.  I.    Sex  and  Society.    1907. 


The  evidence  thus  far  offered  indicates  that  while  we 
are  not  to  consider  the  human  body  as  perfect,  we  are 
justified  in  the  assumption  that  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  children  are  born  sound  and  normal  in  body  and  mind. 
It  is  equally  clear  that  all  children  are  not  born  into  the 
same  world,  that  for  some  every  care  has  been  taken  in 
advance  and  everything  which  knowledge  can  suggest  or 
money  furnish  will  be  provided,  while  for  others  neglect 
begins  even  before  birth.  Social  facts  thus  play  a  large 
part  in  the  actual  life  of  the  child,  and,  as  will  be  shown, 
influence  in  no  small  way  the  number  of  children  born. 

A  century  ago  Malthus,  speculating  on  the  actual  and 
possible  increase  of  the  human  race,  made  his  famous 
generalization  that  while  food  supply  tended  to  increase 
in  an  arithmetical  ratio,  population  tended  to  increase  in 
a  geometrical  ratio.  Could  Malthus  visit  earth  today  he 
would  doubtless  be  surprised  to  find  that  during  the  cen- 
tury there  has  been  a  steady  increase  of  the  population 
of  Europe  and  America,  that  the  birth-rate  has  steadily 
fallen,  the  death-rate  as  well.  Would  he  also  conclude  that 
some  checks  had  been  deliberately  applied?  In  Europe 
the  increase  was  from  175  millions  in  1800  to  420  millions 
in  1900. 

First,  then,  what  are  the  facts?  The  following  dia- 
gram will  illustrate  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in 
England  and  Wales.  It  will  be  seen  that  while  the  birth- 

331 


332 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


rate  and  the  death-rate  have  steadily  fallen  the  marriage 
rate  has  remained  fairly  constant. 


35 


25 


20 


15 


10 


Ma 


rlage 


late 


N 


876 


881 


1886 


1806 


1006 


iaai 


1001 


1011 


BIRTH,  DEATH  AND  MABBIAGE  RATES,  ENGLAND 
AND  WALES,  1876-1911 

The  English  birth-rate  in  1861  was  34.5,  death-rate 
21.5,  infantile  mortality  15  per  cent,  an  excess  of  13 
births  over  deaths  per  1,000,  or  1,000  became  1,013  each 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  333 

year.  The  birth-rate  rose  to  36  in  1876.  In  1900  it 
was  25  and  is  now  lower.  The  death-rate  has  fallen  to 
about  14  and  the  infantile  mortality  rate  is  about  10  per 
cent.  The  population  is  increasing  almost  as  fast  as 
before  fall  of  birth-rate. 

The  German  birth-rate  rose  to  41  in  1876,  and  has 
since  fallen  to  31.  The  death-rate  has  declined  from  29 
to  17,  and  the  infantile  mortality  rate  from  21  per  cent 
to  17  per  cent. 

In  France  the  birth-rate  in  1881-84  was  38.9,  falling 
in  1901-96  to  21.1,  but  the  death-rate  in  the  same  time  fell 
from  37  to  19.6,  so  rate  of  increase  is  about  the  same. 

Holland  had  a  birth-rate  in  1876  of  37  which  has  fallen 
to  29  but  the  death-rate  has  fallen  from  about  25  to  13  and 
infantile  mortality  from  18  per  cent  to  less  than  10  per 
cent.  Since  1895  Holland  has  taught  by  royal  decree 
methods  of  preventing  conception.  According  to  the 
official  year  book  the  proportion  of  men  drawn  from  the 
army  over  5  feet  7  inches  has  increased  from  24.5  per 
cent  to  47.5  per  cent  since  1865  and  the  proportion  under 
5  feet  2!/2  inches  has  fallen  from  25  per  cent  to  less  than 
8  per  cent. 

The  Australian  birth-rate  fell  from  over  42  in  1860  to 
a  little  over  26  in  1910.  The  death-rate  fell,  however, 
from  average  of  about  18  to  a  trifle  over  10  and  infantile 
mortality  from  11  per  cent  to  about  7  per  cent. 

The  New  Zealand  birth-rate  in  1855  was  about  42;  in 
1910,  about  26.  The  fertility  rate  has  steadily  declined 
from  337.2  per  1,000  married  women  in  1878  to  226.6  in 
1906.  But  the  death-rate  has  fallen  likewise  from  about 
17  in  1860  to  a  little  over  9  in  1910,  and  the  infantile 
mortality  rate  is  now  about  7  per  cent.  The  result  is 
that  excess  of  births  over  deaths  is  about  16  per  thousand, 


334         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

enabling  the  population  to  double  in  44  years  and  increase 
4.8  fold  in  a  century. 

Canada  showed  a  decrease  in  birth-rate  up  to  1895  since 
when  it  has  increased  but  curiously  the  death-rate  showed 
a  similar  change. 

The  British  Registrar-General  reports  on  29  countries. 
In  18  the  birth-rate  has  fallen  but  the  death-rate  has  like- 
wise fallen  in  practically  equal  proportion.  In  4  the  birth- 
rate is  stationary  (Eussia,  Roumania,  Jamaica  and  Ire- 
land). In  these  the  death-rates  and  infantile  mortality  are 
also  stationary.  Russia  with  a  birth-rate  of  50  has  highest 
death-rate  of  Europe,  36,  and  highest  infant  mortality  rate 
26  per  cent. 

In  4  the  birth-rate  has  risen  (Bulgaria,  Ceylon,  Japan, 
Ontario).  In  each  the  infant  mortality  and  death-rates 
have  risen.1 

These  figures  have  attracted  much  attention,  particu- 
larly in  Europe,  where  their  significance  is  widely  dis- 
cussed; most  of  all  perhaps  in  France,  where  the  popula- 
tion has  become  almost  stationary.  In  analyzing  the 
situation  it  becomes  clear  that  this  decline  varies  with  the 
economic  status  of  the  different  groups.  The  accompany- 

Birth  Rate  in  France2 

Personal  property  Legitimate  births 

Departments                          tax  and  tax  on  per  1000  mar- 
doors  and  windows  riageable  women 

10 75  — 1.21  fr.  23.63 

9    1.29  —  1.41  21.88 

11    1.46  —  1.59  18.06 

8    1.65—1.73  16.66 

9    1.80  —  1.93  15.84 

10    1.98  —  2.06  16.33 

10    2.13  —  2.42  15.94 

9    2.52  —  2.82  17.77 

10    2.98  —  4.34  14.73 

1    6.73  13.24 

1  DBTSDALE,  C.  V.     The  Small  Family  System,  p.  51  ff. 

2  SCHAJLLMAYEB.     Vererbung  und  Auslese  beim  Menschen,  p.  125. 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  335 

ing  table  shows  this.  The  reader  is  warned  not  to  assume 
that  the  difference  of  a  few  francs  in  taxes  paid  is  the 
cause  of  the  phenomenon. 

Leroy-Beaulieu  adds  that  in  France  in  the  better  situ- 
ated groups  the  birth-rate  is  relatively  low  and  is  much 
higher  in  the  poorer  groups.  In  Paris  the  Chief  of  the 
Statistical  Bureau  states  that  34—52  children  are  born 
yearly  to  each  thousand  women  (aged  15-50)  of  the  richer 
classes  while  95-108  children  are  born  to  each  thousand 
women  of  the  poor  groups. 

As  further  evidence,  we  may  add  a  diagram3  based  on 
the  returns  from  a  number  of  European  cities : 

Birth  Rate  according  to  Degree  of  Wealth  in  Different  Sections 
of  European  Cities 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  ANNUAL  BIRTHS  PER  1000  WOMEN  FROM  15 
TO  50  YEARS  OF  AGE 

Very  Well  Very  well  Very 

No.  yrs.     poor      Poor        off  off        Rich  rich 

Paris  5             108          95           72  65          53  34 

London    9             147         140  107  107           87  63 

Berlin    9             157         129  114  96          63  47 

Vienna     5?          200         164  155  153         107  71 

There  is  a  very  widespread  belief  that  this  is  true  in  the 
United  States  also  and  there  is  much  evidence  thereof  in 
spite  of  the  deplorable  condition  of  our  vital  statistics. 
The  following  figures  are  to  the  point: 

Kuczynski  estimates  the  births  in  the  native  population 
of  Massachusetts  at  63  to  each  1,000  women  of  child-bear- 
ing years.  The  French  figure  is  about  85,  English,  104 ; 
Eussian,  143.  If  French  population  is  stationary,  New 
England  must  be  actually  losing.4 

s  BERTUXON,  J.  Quoted  by  Chatterton-Hill  —  Heredity  and  Se- 
lection in  Sociology,  p.  325. 

*  KUCZYNSKI,  K.  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics.  Nov.,  1901, 
and  Feb.,  1902. 


336         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

Based  on  census  figures  it  has  been  shown  that  in  cer- 
tain selected  districts  13.1  per  cent  of  the  native  white 
women  who  had  been  married  from  10  to  20  years  had 
borne  no  children,  while  only  5.7  per  cent  of  the  women  of 
foreign  parentage  were  childless.  One  woman  in  eight  of 
the  native  stock  was  childless,  as  compared  to  one  in  twenty 
of  the  foreign.  Of  the  second  generation  in  America,  6.3 
of  the  women  had  no  children.  The  white  natives  had 
borne  a  child  every  5.3  years,  foreign  whites  every  3.2 
years.  Women  of  English  parentage  had  a  child  every 
4.2  years,  those  of  Polish  parentage  every  2.3  years.  City 
communities  show  highest  percentage  of  those  having  no 
children.  The  average  number  of  years  married  per  child 
born  was  3.8  in  Rhode  Island;  3.5  in  Cleveland;  3.6  in 
rural  Ohio ;  4  in  Minneapolis  and  2.8  in  rural  Minnesota. 
While  these  figures  may  not  apply  to  the  United  States 
at  large,  they  indicate  certain  real  differences  and  changes 
of  great  meaning.5 

"  I  recently  examined  150  Irish  families  in  northern 
Pennsylvania,  who  are  now  in  the  second  American  genera- 
tion. These  families  were  of  the  best  classes  that  emi- 
grated about  the  time  of  the  famine  of  1847.  With  two 
exceptions  (where  the  fathers  became  drunkards  here) 
they  gave  the  children  the  best  example ;  they  all  succeeded 
financially  so  that  their  children  were  well  fed,  well 
housed  and  educated :  nearly  every  family  was  able  to  send 
some  of  its  sons  to  college.  In  the  first  American  genera- 
tion there  were  5.52  children  as  the  average  to  each  family. 
If  there  were  a  full  progression  at  this  rate,  these  fifty 
families  should  now  be  represented  by  1,523  persons. 
The  total,  however,  in  the  second  generation  will  not  reach 

5  HILL,  J.  A.     In  Quarterly  Publications  of  American  Statistical 
Society,  Dec.,  1913,  pp.  583-004. 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  337 

200  persons  and  I  am  practically  certain  there  was  no 
prevention  of  conception. 

"  In  the  first  American  generation  there  were  276  chil- 
dren, 149  males,  127  females.  'Of  these  53  men,  over  35 
per  cent  were  chronic  alcoholics,  public  drunkards ;  6  of  the 
women  also  were  public  drunkards.  Twelve  of  the  men 
and  four  of  the  women  became  insane."  6 

Though  it  seems  impossible  in  the  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge to  explain  this  phenomenon  adequately,  much  less 
assign  relative  values  to  the  different  forces  at  work,  we 
can  discover  some  of  the  causes,  and  we  may  divide  these 
into  indirect  and  direct. 

1.  The  increased  length  of  infancy  as  civilization  ad- 
vances, already  mentioned,  automatically  defers  the  age  of 
marriage.  This  affects  the  number  of  children  adversely. 
Galton  said  that  the  children  of  a  man  marrying  at  20 
as  compared  with  those  of  a  man  marrying  at  28  is  8 
to  5.  Kubin  and  Westergaard  made  the  following  esti- 
mates :  7 

Age  of  man  at  marriage  Number  of  Children 

Under  25  3.50 

25  —  29    3.25 

35  —  44 2.28 

Over  45   1.10 

30  —  34    3.02 

These  statements  are  based  on  supposedly  reliable  evi- 
dence but  it  seems  to  me  that  they  are  inadequate.  The 
sexual  life  of  the  man  is  much  longer  than  that  of  the 
woman.  If  it  can  be  shown  that  her  marriage  is  deferred, 
the  conclusions  would  be  more  valuable.  On  this  ques- 
tion, reliable  evidence  is  lacking.  We  have  assumed  that 
in  early  New  England  the  women  married  very  young,  but 

e  A.  O'MALLEY.     The  Cure  of  Alcoholism,  p.  97. 
7  Schallmayer,  quoted  by,  o.  c.,  p.  132. 


338         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

this  has  lately  been  questioned.  The  smaller  number  of 
children  when  the  fathers  marry  late  may  be  due  to  other 
causes.  It  seems  true  that  the  women  of  the  so-called 
upper  groups  marry  later  than  those  of  the  working  classes, 
so  there  is  doubtless  some  real  influence  exerted.  Civi- 
lized women  certainly  marry  later  than  those  in  more 
primitive  societies. 

2.  Child-bearing  appears  to  be  more  difficult  for  civi- 
lized woman  than  for  her  ancestors  and  harder  for  the 
women  in  the  upper  classes.     Certain  it  is,  whatever  the 
cause,  that  instrumental  delivery  has  become  increasingly 
common  in  the  last  century.     Medical  skill  saves  a  good 
many  lives  today  which  would  have  been  sacrificed  a  gen- 
eration or  two  ago.     In  earlier  years,  the  woman  would 
have  died,  the  man  would  probably  have  remarried  and 
had  more  children.     Now  the  family  is  preserved,  but  the 
number  of  children  is  decreased.     The  records  of  old  New 
England  families  strikingly  confirm  this  inference. 

3.  Celibacy,  however  caused,  plays  an  important  part  in 
so  far  as  the  groups  affected  are  concerned.     The  with- 
drawal of  so  many  of  the  best  men  and  women  into  the 
priesthood  or  the  nunneries,  the  growth  of  prostitution 
with  its  sterility-producing  diseases,  compulsory  military 
service  extending  over  years  at  just  the  period  when  men 
ordinarily  think  of  marriage,  world-wide  commerce  which 
may  develop  the  roving  spirit  at  the  expense  of  the  desire 
for  individual  homes,  all  play  their  part. 

4.  What  we  may  term  selfish  ideals  growing  out  of  a 
desire  for  an  easier  life  for  either  parents  or  children  have 
bad  as  well  as  good  influence.     On  the  one  hand,  they  may 
lead  to  better  care  and  training  of  fewer  children;  on 
the  other,  to  a  disinclination  to  work  and  compete  with 
others  for  the  rewards  of  life.     Either  affects  the  rate  of 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  339 

reproduction.     We  may   say   without   exaggeration   that 
large  families  are  no  longer  in  style. 

5.  Immigration  is  held  by  many  to  be  an  important 
factor  particularly  in  America.     A  generation  or  more 
ago,  Walker  and  others  argued  that  the  population  of  the 
country  would  be  as  large  as  it  is  today  had  there  been 
no  immigration  on  the  assumption  that  the  colonial  birth- 
rate would  have  remained  had  it  not  been  for  the  incomers 
with  whom  the  older  groups  did  not  care  to  compete. 
This  assumption  seems  very  doubtful.     England  with  no 
immigration  for  centuries  until  the  recent  advent  of  the 
Russian-Jew  and  with  a  great  loss  through  emigration  has 
shown  a  marked  decline  in  birth-rate,  while  France  with 
no  immigration  has  actually  lost  in  aggregate  population. 
Underlying  Walker's  idea  was  also  the  assumption,  which 
we  need  not  discuss,  that  the  older  stock  was  better  than 
the  newer. 

6.  Religious  beliefs  and  institutions  have  great  influ- 
ence.    The  Jewish  emphasis  on  large  families,  the  desire 
of  the  Chinese  to  maintain  ancestor  worship,  the  Mormon 
emphasis  on  the  duty  of  incorporating  as  many  as  possible 
of  the  unborn  spirits,  all  tend  to  keep  up  the  birth-rate. 
That  religious  leaders  are  less  insistent  than  formerly  on 
this  question  is  not  to  be  doubted. 

7.  Increasing  divorce  doubtless  has  some  influence,  but 
just  what  or  how  much  it  is  hard  to  say.     In  spite  of 
divorce  a  larger  percentage  of  the  population  appears  to 
be  living  in  marital  relations  than  formerly.     If  this  is 
true,  it  is  easy  to  overemphasize  the  importance  of  divorce. 

8.  Diseases  and  accidents,  most  of  which  are  prevent- 
able, are  also  to  be  considered.     The  lowering  of  the  stand- 
ard of  living  affects  the  desirability  of  children  quite  as 
directly  as  does  the  accidental  death  of  one  parent.     The 


340         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

elimination  of  needless  suffering  and  loss  would  tend  to 
increase  the  birth-rate. 

9.  More  important  than  many  of  the  foregoing  would 
appear  to  be  the  changed  industrial  conditions,  particu- 
larly the  opening  of  new  avenues  of  employment  to  women. 
This  makes  them  more  independent,  more  judicious  in 
their  choice  of  life  partners,  and  tends,  therefore,  to  later 
marriage  as  well  as  to  celibacy.  This  is  accentuated  by 
such  stupid  decisions  as  the  refusal  to  employ  married 
women  as  teachers,  or  by  their  discharge  if  they  become 
mothers. 

So  far  the  causes  considered  have  worked  indirectly  in 
the  main.  There  are  others,  however,  of  more  immediate 
effect. 

1.  Disease  plays  a  role  often  underestimated.     Gonor- 
rhea alone  is  held  by  physicians  responsible  for  one-half 
of   the    involuntarily    childless    marriages.     When    both 
parents   are  syphilitic  at  time  of  conception  no  child, 
probably,  is  born  alive.     Even  where  one  only  is  a  victim 
of  this  disease,  the  results  are  terrific.     A  Chicago  physi- 
cian saw  1,700  cases  of  syphilitic  mothers.     Five  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  or  34  per  cent  resulted  in  miscarriages 
or  still  births.     Xine  hundred  and  fifty-six  living  children 
were  born  who  died  within  12  months  after  birth,  a  com- 
bined total  of  1,534  of  the  1,700  or  90  per  cent    who 
did  not  reach  the  age  of  one  year.     A  large  part  of  the 
remainder  were  crippled  by  the  disease.     Other  diseases 
probably  have  considerable  influence  on  child-bearing. 

2.  Vice,  like  alcoholism,  particularly  on  the  part  of 
pregnant  women,  decidedly  affects  the  unborn  child  and 
the  mother's  ability  to  nurse  it. 

3.  Abortion,  though  prohibited  by  law,  still  exists  and 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  341 

there  is  probably  no  large  town  or  city  where  some  one 
will  not  perform  it  if  the  financial  inducement  is  large 
enough. 

4.  By  common  consent  the  most  important  factor  in 
limiting  the  birth-rate   is  the  prevention  of  conception 
either  by  the  exercise  of  self-control  or  by  direct  contra- 
ceptive measures.     In  the  educated  groups  of  all  Western 
civilizations  this  is  seemingly  almost  universal.     The  evi- 
dence for  it  is  not  to  be  reduced  to  statistical  tables  unless 
one  is  willing  to  accept  the  different  birth-rates  of  the 
different  economic  levels  of  the  same  race  stock  as  satis- 
factory.    Society  is  by  no  means  agreed  as  to  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  practice  nor  is  its  attitude  on  the  subject  wholly 
free  from  hypocrisy.     Direct  teaching  and  the  sale  of 
publications  or  contraceptive  instruments  are  usually  pro- 
hibited.    Holland,  however,   has  for  some  years  openly 
taught  the  poorer  classes  how  to  prevent  conception  and 
with  good  results,  so  it  is  claimed.     In  all  countries  there 
are  those  who  believe  in  small  families  rather  than  large 
and  who  argue  that  it  is  foolish  to  permit  ignorance  to  be 
responsible  for  the  birth  of  large  numbers  of  children  for 
whom  the  parents  cannot  provide  proper  care  and  train- 
ing.    Others  advocate  large  families  even  if  society  at 
large  must  assume  parental  responsibility. 

5.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  conditions  of  life  of 
the  upper  classes  called  for  such  nervous  expenditure  in 
many  directions  that  the  physical  strength  was  sapped 
and  reproduction  automatically  checked.     For  this  there 
seems  to  be  little  direct  evidence. 

The  most  interesting  diagram  that  I  have  seen  in  this 
field  is  that  by  Dr.  J.  McKeen  Cattell,  published  in  the 
New  York  Independent  which  is  here  reproduced. 


J  Not  Voluntarily  Llm'teel 
Limited  because  of  Health 
"  "        "  Expense 

••       for  other  Causes 


THE  FAMILIES  OF  461  LEADING  AMEBICAN  SCIENTIFIC  MEN 

The  figures  at  the  bottom  indicate  the  number  of  children  to  a 
family;  those  at  the  left  the  number  of  families  of  equal  size.  The 
chart  shows  for  each  size  of  family  of  461  American  men  of  science  in 
how  many  cases  the  limitation  was  involuntary  and  in  how  many 
cases  it  was  voluntary.  The  sliaded  areas,  showing  the  number  in 
which  it  was  voluntary,  are  subdivided  to  indicate  the  causes.  Thus, 
when  the  marriage  was  childless,  this  condition  was  involuntary  in  67 
cases  and  voluntary  in  35  cases.  The  reasons  assigned  were  health 
in  25  cases,  expense  in  5  cases  and  other  causes  in  5  cases.  In  the 
family  of  two,  the  limitation  was  voluntary  in  84  out  of  98  mar- 
riages. The  reasons  assigned  were  health  in  44  cases,  expense  in 
29  cases  and  inconvenience  or  other  causes  in  11  cases.7 


^  CATTELL,  J.  MCKEEN. 


Independent,  September  27,  1915. 
342 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  343 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  conflict  of  ideals  is  not  as  diver- 
gent as  extremists  on  either  side  believe.  All  are  agreed 
that  we  want  the  race  maintained  and  that  we  want  the 
children  well  trained,  equipped  with  sound  minds  and 
bodies.  If  society  will  undertake  the  task  large  families 
may  be  desirable  even  for  the  poor.  I  assume  that  the 
unfit  will  be  eliminated.  If  society  is  not  ready  to  as- 
sume such  a  burden  we  have  the  option  of  continuing  the 
present  policy  with  its  enormous  burden  of  misery  and 
neglect,  or  the  attempt  to  reduce  it  by  the  limiting  of  the 
family. 

Entirely  aside  from  the  question  of  reproduction  there 
are  many  ways  in  which,  it  is  claimed,  society  interferes 
with  natural  evolution.  These  must  be  considered.  The 
interference  with  natural  selection  is  specially  stressed  and 
the  following  claims  are  made: 

1.  It  is  alleged  that  human  ingenuity  has  stopped  man's 
physical  evolution.     Thus  Drummond  argued  that  there 
was  no  reason  to  anticipate  further  development  of  the 
hand  because  man's  invention  of  tools  had  removed  the 
necessity  for  better  hands.     In  like  fashion  he  claimed 
that  the  use  of  glasses  had  stopped  the  advance  of  the 
eyes,  indeed  he  thought  a  marked  retrogression  could  be 
seen  because  now  man  could  make  cameras,  telescopes, 
miscroscopes,  etc.,  which  were  better  than  natural  eyes. 
Smell  and  hearing  were  also  tending  to  disappear  he 
believed.8 

2.  Surgical  skill  and  medical  knowledge  by  preserving 
the  relatively  unfit,  that  is  the  naturally  poorer  types,  have 
stopped  the  struggle  for  existence  and  this  is  held  to  be 
very  unfortunate.     In  part  this  argument  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  corollary  to  the  preceding  paragraph,  in  part 

s  DRUMMOND,  HENBY.    Ascent  of  Man,  Chap.  III. 


344         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

it  covers  new  ground.  The  use  of  glasses,  for  illustration, 
makes  it  possible  for  many  to  remain  in  the  ranks  of 
teachers  who  would  otherwise  be  forced  into  professions 
calling  for  less  use  of  the  eyes.  But  success  in  teaching 
turns  upon  many  things  besides  eyes,  and  whether  the 
exclusion  of  those  with  relatively  poorer  eyes  would  be 
socially  advantageous  or  not,  is  not  easily  answered.  A 
bit  later  we  will  consider  the  physical  side  of  the  problem. 
The  preservation  of  the  lives  of  types  of  women  not  fitted 
to  become  mothers  has  been  mentioned  already.  In  like 
fashion  the  cutting  down  of  the  death-rate  from  smallpox, 
malaria,  typhoid,  tuberculosis  and  yellow  fever  may  be 
held  to  be  unwise  for  it  preserves  the  types  susceptible  to 
these  diseases  whereas  the  older  conditions  would  have 
ultimately  destroyed  the  susceptible  types  and  the  sur- 
vivors would  be  free  from  their  attacks.  Again  this 
entirely  disregards  the  question  of  the  social  fitness  of  the 
susceptible  individuals. 

3.  The  attempt  to  prevent  the  formation  of  vicious 
habits  by  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  the  agents  used  has 
been  considered  ill-advised.  Thus  G.  A.  Keid  in  "  Al- 
coholism," an  extreme  but  thought-provoking  work,  asserts 
that  the  older  races  of  earth  have,  through  long  contact 
with  alcohol,  weeded  out  the  types  liable  to  alcoholism, 
and  today  need  no  artificial  protection  against  it.  The 
newer  races,  only  recently  possessed  of  alcohol  in  large 
quantities,  are  those  that  yield  to  its  seductive  influence 
to  any  degree.  Therefore,  says  Reid,  the  Jews  are  practi- 
cally free  from  alcoholism,  while  the  Irish  are  often  its 
slaves.  The  thing  to  do  then,  is  to  permit  those  who 
want  to  drink  themselves  to  death  to  do  so,  and  the  sooner 
the  better.  We  shall  then  have  a  race  no  longer  in  danger 
and  thus  in  the  long  run  will  be  better  off.  The  warfare 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  345 

against  alcohol,  opium,  peyote,  coca-cola,  hasheesh,  tobacco, 
chloral,  or  whatnot  is  all  wrong,  say  the  advocates  of  what 
has  been  picturesquely  called  the  "  open-door-to-hell " 
policy,  but  nowhere  has  this  policy  found  a  large  follow- 
ing in  modern  communities.9 

4.  War,  as  formerly  conducted,  that  is  as  a  direct 
struggle  between  individuals,  has  often  been  defended  as 
a  selective  agency  in  that  the  weaker  were  destroyed. 
Modern  warfare  has  become  a  contest  of  machines  and  de- 
stroys the  strong  as  well  as  the  weak.  Solid  shot  and 
shrapnel  make  no  distinction  of  persons.  The  diseases 
which  have  accompanied  the  wars  of  the  nineteenth  century 
have  been  far  more  deadly  than  the  bullets  and  have  in 
measure  perhaps  reintroduced  the  selective  factor.  But 
human  skill  will  soon  eliminate  most  of  the  incidental 
diseases.  The  contrast  between  a  war  conducted  with  due 
regard  for  modern  science  as  by  the  Japanese,  and  one  in 
which  medical  science  was  neglected  (the  Spanish-Amer- 
ican War)  or  one  antedating  modern  medicine  (Civil 
War)  is  most  striking  as  the  following  diagram  reveals. 
It  shows  percentages  of  killed  or  dying  from  wounds ;  and 
from  disease. 

Opponents  of  all  warfare  point  out  that  the  terrific  loss 
of  life  from  whatever  cause  remove  from  the  ranks  of 
society,  and  of  parents  great  numbers  of  young  men  in  the 
prime  of  life  who  are  the  cream  of  the  population  from 
the  physical  standpoint  because  they  have  passed  strict 
examinations  which  the  weaklings  cannot  survive.  They 
argue  that  Napoleon's  campaigns  reduced  the  average 
stature  of  the  French  and  introduced  a  lot  of  degeneracy. 
The  evidence  on  this  point  has  seemed  a  bit  less  conclusive 
since  August  1,  1914. 

»  REID,  G.  A.     Alcoholism,  p.  97-112. 


346 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 


5.  It  is  claimed  that  religious  fanaticism  leading  to  the 
destruction  of  many  of  the  best  men  and  women  of  the 
country,  as  in  Spain  during  the  Inquisition,  has  done 
incalculable  harm  to  the  people  by  changing  the  relative 
percentages  of  the  higher  and  lower  groups  in  the  popula- 

RUSSO-JAPANESE 


CIVIL  WAB 


SPANISH-AMERICAN  WAR 


KILLED  OB  DIED  OF  WOUNDS, 


DIED  OF  DISEASE 


THE  CAUSES  OF  DEATH  IN  THREE  WARS 

tion,  and  no  one  can  doubt  a  certain  justification  for  the 
claim.  Just  as  the  world  had  thought  that  such  whole- 
sale martyrdom  was  a  thing  of  the  past  comes  the  biggest 
thing  of  the  sort  on  record  in  the  practical:  annihilation  of 
the  Armenians  by  the  Turks  in  1915. 

6.  Modern  humanitarian  movements,  the  emphasis  on 
the  sacredness  of  life,  the  attempt  to  reform  criminals,  the 
care  of  the  poor  and  afflicted,  are  often  charged  with  being 
decidedly  anti-social  in  their  results.  Why  save  the  unfit  ? 
Why  not  let  them  perish  and  thus  avoid  not  only  the  ex- 
pense of  caring  for  them  but  also  avoid  the  taint  they  pass 
on  to  later  generations  ? 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  347 

7.  The  development  of  social  castes,  particularly  when 
membership  becomes  a  matter  of  birth-right,  works  harm 
in  two  ways.     First,  it  checks  and  nullifies  ambition  on 
the  part  of  gifted  members  of  the  lower  groups.     Second, 
it  maintains  in  positions  of  power  and  responsibility  those 
who  are  often  unfit.     The  opponents  of  this  argument 
maintain  that  in  the  long  run  the  able  members  of  the 
lower  groups  are  taken  into  the  higher  and  thus  no  real 
harm  is  done.     As  proof  they  cite  the  fact  that  the  nobles' 
in  all  countries  are  short  lived.     Thus,  De  Chateauneuf 
claims  that  in  France  such  families  seldom  last  over  ten 
generations,  or  300  years.     Among  280  houses  he  found 
only  20  which  pass  the  title  uninterruptedly  9  or  10  times 
to  the  first  born.     Among  the  Nobles  of  the  Robe  the 
average  family  life  was  230  years.     The  same  general 
situation  is  true  also  of  England  and  Germany.10 

8.  That  modern  industry  is  accompanied  by  an  enor- 
mous number  of  accidents  is  true.     That  it  has  produced 
new  types  of  diseases  due  to  the  poisonous  nature  of  sub- 
stances used  such  as  lead  and  sulphur,  that  work  such  as 
tunneling  under  rivers  has  given  us  the  "  caisson  disease  " 
is  true.     That  sudden  changes  of  temperature  resulting 
from  work  in  iron  furnaces  and  the  exposure  to  outer  air 
has  furnished  favorable  soil  for  tuberculosis  and  pneu- 
monia admits  of  no  doubt.     It  is  alleged  further  that  pro- 
gressive degeneration  of  the  working  class  is  going  on. 
As  proof  we  are  reminded  that  the  English  have  had  to 
lessen  the  army  entrance  requirements  several  times  in  the 
last  century;   that  recruiting  stations  in  the  industrial 
districts  of  Pennsylvania  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  war 
were  closed  because  the  applicants  could  not  pass  the 
tests.     These  are  unquestioned  facts.     If  the  inference  is 

10  REIBMAYR,  A.     Inzucht  und  Vermischung,  pp.  261  flf. 


348 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OP  SOCIETY 


also  true,  our  civilization  is  threatened  with  a  slow  process 
of  suicide. 

9.  Much  weight  is  also  laid  upon  the  increase  in  all 
civilized  lands  of  suicide.  Here  the  evidence  is  striking. 
In  13  European  states,  there  was  an  increase  from  104 
per  million  in  1868  to  134  per  million  in  1882. 


SUICIDE 


"2\ 


160 


16. 


16.2 


15.7, 


.0 


14.7 


\/ 


13.8 


13.0 


122 


HOMICIDE 


63 


6,4 


6.6 


*f^lt 


1000  1001   1002   1003  1004   1005  1006   1007   1008  1000   1010  1011 

INCREASE  IN  SUICIDE  AND  HOMICIDE  IN  REGISTRATION  AREA  OF  U.  S. 
RATE  PER  100,000  OF  POPULATION 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  a  real  or  apparent 
increase  in  the  number  of  the  insane  and  the  claim  has 
been  made  that  this  amounts  to  100  per  cent  per  decade. 
In  the  state  of  Michigan  in  the  years  1890-91  for  each 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  349 

10,000  of  the  population  there  were  17.44  treated  in  the 
State  Hospitals;  in  1900-01,  20.63;  in  1914-15,  30.19; 
the  actual  number  treated  having  increased  from  3,652  to 
8,955.  In  Europe  similar  claims  are  made.  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  English  commission  reported  a  decided 
increase  in  the  number  of  the  feeble-minded,  and  the  prev- 
alent belief  that  the  same  holds  true  here,  there  is  room 
for  doubt.  We  recognize  and  treat  many  cases  of  mental 
defect  and  disease  that  would  have  passed  unnoticed  a 
generation  ago  and  our  institutional  provision  is  so  much 
better  that  we  probably  treat  a  larger  percentage  of  those 
needing  treatment.  If  it  could  be  shown  that  present 
conditions  of  life  and  labor  were  causing  the  mental  break- 
down of  the  people  the  outlook  would  be  more  serious. 
We  know  that  much  of  insanity  is  the  result  of  vice,  alco- 
holism, worry  and  disease,  and  these  are  not  necessarily 
the  accompaniments  of  civilization. 

10.  More  and  more  thoughtful  students  are  coming  to 
realize  that  the  institution  of  private  property  with  the 
right  of  the  inheritance  thereof  is  profoundly  affecting  our 
whole  life.  With  the  disappearance  of  free  land  our 
social  system  is  being  changed.  With  the  concentration 
of  wealth  in  a  few  hands  the  opportunities  of  the  property- 
less  are  radically  modified.  It  has  been  claimed  that  the 
richest  one  per  cent  of  the  people  receive  a  larger  income 
than  the  poorest  fifty  per  cent.  It  is  argued  that  this  is 
changing  the  race  stock. 

We  have  now  surveyed  hurriedly  most  of  the  indictment 
brought  against  civilization.  A  little  reflection  will  show 
that  this  may  be  summed  up  under  four  heads.  (1) 
Invention  is  checking  favorable  variations  and  creating 
an  artificial  rather  than  a  natural  condition.  (2)  Science 
and  philanthropy  are  preserving  unfavorable  types  which 


350         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

tend  to  reproduce  faster  than  the  superior  and  will  in  time 
therefore  drive  out  the  better.  (3)  Social  arrangements 
have  destroyed  the  struggle  for  existence  on  which  progress 
depends.  (4)  Civilization  is  destroying  itself. 

It  is  apparent  to  the  careful  reader  that  a  large  part  of 
the  indictment  is  based  upon  an  older  biology  which,  as 
has  been  shown,  is  no  longer  accepted  by  biologists.  It 
may  be  that  the  eye  will  not  become  better  adapted  to 
the  newer  tasks  and  will  not  improve.  But  we  now  know 
that  new  uses  have  never  caused  favorable  variations. 
\rariations  are  not  dependent  upon  use.  We  have  a  thumb 
which  may  be  made  to  oppose  the  other  fingers  and  to 
this  fact  we  owe  much  of  the  value  of  our  hands.  There 
is  no  reason  to  assume  that  the  attempt  of  early  animals 
to  cause  such  an  opposition  of  thumb  and  fingers  produced 
the  variation.  In  fact,  we  know  nothing  of  the  cause  of 
variations,  but  it  is  certain  that  use  and  disuse  are  not 
responsible. 

In  like  manner  there  is  no  reason  to  assume  that  modern 
industrial  conditions,  admitting  the  worst  that  can  be  said 
as  to  their  responsibility  for  accident  and  disease,  are 
causing  a  progressive  degeneration  of  the  race  stock.  This 
cannot  be  construed  into  an  argument  for  permitting  bad 
working  conditions  which  injure  workers.  It  is  merely 
a  recognition  that  the  problem  belongs  in  the  realm  of  the 
environment,  not  in  that  of  heredity.  In  other  words,  if 
the  sons  of  the  crippled  and  diseased  miners  and  toilers 
about  whom  England  has  recently  been  concerned  are  put 
under  good  living  conditions  they  will  display  the  same 
old  vigorous  stock  which  was  the  pride  of  the  country. 
Australia,  Canada  and  America  are  but  illustrations  of 
what  a  good  environment  will  do  for  good  stock. 

We  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  question  as  to 


SOCIETY  AND  POPULATION  351 

whether  the  weaklings  should  be  cared  for  or  destroyed. 
We  do  recognize  frankly  that  the  forms  of  degeneracy 
due  to  heredity,  like  feeble-mindedness,  should  be  elimi- 
nated from  the  ranks  of  parents  and  here  biology  has  a 
positive  suggestion  which  society  cannot  long  ignore. 

In  a  word  there  is  in  most  of  the  argument  against 
civilization  a  confusion  of  cause  and  effect.  There  is  no 
good  reason  for  believing  that  the  race  stock  has  changed 
either  for  the  better  or  the  worse  in  thousands  of  years. 
Because  we  are  better  fed  and  live  under  better  conditions 
we  are  larger  and  stronger  than  our  ancestors.  Few  men 
of  today  could  even  get  in  the  armor  of  the  knights  of 
a  few  centuries  ago.  Because  we  are  better  cared  for  we 
have  doubled  the  length  of  life  on  the  average  and  popula- 
tion has  tremendously  increased.  Because  we  care  for 
the  sick  and  crippled  they  too  survive.  When  we  choose  to 
eliminate  the  few  types  of  undoubted  degenerates  whom 
we  have  foolishly  allowed  to  reproduce  we  shall  then  see 
more  clearly  that  the  great  problems  of  society  are  created 
by  society ;  that  is,  they  are  the  results  of  social  programs 
which  have  not  brought  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest 
number,  and  this  we  may  assert  without  quibbling  as  to 
the  responsibility  of  the  individual  man  or  woman.  Sound 
morals  depend  on  sound  brains,  plus,  let  it  not  be  for- 
gotten, sound  training. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOE  READING 

BERTILLON,  J.    Depopulation  de  la  France.    1897. 
CATTELL,  J.  McKEEN.    The  Diminishing  Family.    The  Inde- 
pendent, September  27,  1915. 

DRYSDALE,  C.  V.    The  Small  Family  System.    1914. 
DUNCAN,  J.  M.    Fecundity,  Fertility  and  Sterility.    1871. 
ELLIS,  H.    The  Problem  of  Race  Regeneration.  1911. 
Faculty  of  Actuaries,  Transactions  of  the,  1912. 


352         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

HILL,  J.  A.  Comparative  Fecundity  of  Women  of  Native  and 
Foreign  Parentage  in  the  United  States.  In  Quarterly 
Publications  of  American  Statistical  Society,  December, 
1913. 

HIRSCH,  M.  Fruchtabtreibung  und  Prueventiwerkehr  in  Zu- 
sammenhang  mit  dem  Gebuertenrueckgang.  1914. 

HOFFMAN,  F.  L.  Maternity  Statistics  of  Khode  Island,  in 
Problems  in  Eugenics.  1912.  P.  334  ff. 

KUCZYNSKI,  R.  Fecundity  of  Native  and  Foreign  Born. 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  November,  1901,  and 
February,  1902. 

MARCHE,  M.  L.  La  fertilite  des  manages  suivant  le  profes- 
sion et  la  situation  sociale,  in  Problems  in  Eugenics, 
p.  195  ff. 

NEWSHOLME,  A.    The  Declining  Birth-rate.    1911. 

PEARL,  R.  The  Inheritance  of  Fecundity,  in  Problems  in 
Eugenics,  p.  47  ff. 

PEARSON,  KARL,  et  al.  Correlation  of  Fertility  with  Social 
Value.  1913. 

SALEEBY,  C.  W.    The  Methods  of  Race  Regeneration.     1911. 

SCHALLMAYER,  W.  Vererbung  v.  Auslese  im  Lebenslauf  der 
Volker.  1903. 


CHAPTER  X 
SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS 

Many  ages  ago  man  emerged  from  his  ape-like  chrysalis 
and  began  his  long  journey.  Of  all  the  earlier  stages  the 
records  are  gone  beyond  recall  and  the  story  of  his  career 
can  only  be  reconstructed  in  vaguest  outlines  from  the 
hints  given  us  by  existing  savages  and  the  application  of 
existing  knowledge  as  to  the  conditions  under  which  he 
lived.  In  this  attempt  we  are  likely  to  fall  into  serious 
error  because  we  look  at  things  through  our  own  eyes  and 
we  interpret  his  life  both  physical  and  mental  in  the  light 
of  our  own  experiences. 

It  seems  certain  that  early  man  lived  in  small  groups,, 
probably  in  a  warm  climate  for  he  was  without  clothes, 
and  that  he  lived  largely  on  fruits.  We  know  that  in  his 
day  he  was  surrounded  by  immense  fierce  animals  from 
which  he  could  only  flee  when  attacked,  for  weapons  of 
defense  were  not  yet  his. 

Of  necessity  then  he  lived  in  a  world  of  fear  and  that 
emotion  must  have  been  dominant  in  his  mind.  Driven 
by  this  and  other  emotions,  he  acts.  More  gifted  in  mind 
than  other  animals,  he  considers  the  results  of  his  acts,, 
both  by  himself  and  by  communication  with  his  fellows;, 
and  discovers  that  certain  acts  under  given  circumstances 
bring  happy  results,  while  others  are  disastrous.  He 
learns  to  play,  gather  food,  hunt,  fish,  etc.,  in  companies 
and  comes  to  think  of  the  world  in  terms  of  others  as  well 
as  self.  Out  of  this  process  he  finally  evolves  language,. 

353 


354         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

and  out  of  it  too  comes  that  more  or  less  organized  method 
of  looking  at  the  world  and  its  problems  which  we  term 
his  philosophy.  It  must  be  emphasized  that  his  phi- 
losophy is  the  outgrowth  of  his  acts,  his  acts  in  turn  are 
caused  by  his  emotions.  He  does  not  start  out  with  a 
standard  set  of  rules  to  meet  the  emergencies  of  life,  but 
develops  such  standards  as  the  result  of  trying  to  keep 
himself  alive  and  meet  the  needs  of  the  body. 

At  some  time  he  begins  to  ask  himself  as  to  the  nature 
of  other  forms  of  life.  He  sees  that  animals  eat,  drink, 
sleep  and  perform  the  other  physical  functions  as  he  does. 
He  sees  in  them  many  of  his  own  emotions.  He  does 
things  under  the  stimulus  of  his  emotions;  so  do  they. 
Hence  there  is  a  great  resemblance  between  himself  and 
them.  Could  he  but  learn  their  language  he  might  con- 
verse with  them.  All  causes  to  him  then  become  personal. 
Even  the  events  of  nature  which  we  think  of  in  terms  of 
law  are  to  him  but  indications  of  the  action  of  personality. 
Ultimately  he  thinks  of  the  world  as  peopled  with  spirits 
or  beings  without  bodies.  No  one  has  traced  this  evolu- 
tion in  happier  fashion  than  Spencer. 

The  man  looks  down  into  the  still  pool  of  water  and 
sees  a  face.  He  does  not  know  that  it  is  his  face.  How 
could  he?  He  knows  nothing  of  the  reflection  of  light, 
yet  there  is  a  face  visible  to  all  onlookers.  He  calls,  and 
from  the  cliff  echoes  and  reechoes  the  sound  of  his  voice 
and  even  the  very  word  or  cry.  Some  one  is  evidently 
repeating  what  he  has  said.  Yet  no  one  can  be  seen.  He 
sleeps,  and  dreams  of  some  great  experience  which  he 
tells  to  his  comrades  only  to  be  told  that  he  has  been 
asleep  all  the  time  and  has  not  moved  from  the  spot.  He 
knows  better.  Has  he  not  just  done  this  or  that,  no  matter 
•what  friends  may  say  ?  He  sees  some  one  in  a  coma,  and 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  355 

prepares  to  dispose  of  the  body,  when  lo,  the  friend  re- 
turns to  life.  Here,  then,  is  the  only  answer,  there  must 
be  a  spirit  within  him  which  is  not  confined  to  the  body  but 
may  wander  over  earth  at  will.  The  Tagalogs  of  the 
Philippines  today  believe  that  it  is  dangerous  to  waken 
a  man  suddenly  lest  his  spirit  be  found  absent  and  dire 
results  follow.  So  too  the  awe-inspiring  phenomena, 
fire,  thunder,  lightning,  tornado,  even  sickness  and  final 
death,  come  to  be  thought  of  in  terms  of  persons. 

Now,  such  a  development  but  illustrates  the  distinction 
between  belief  and  knowledge.  Belief  arises  from  sugges- 
tion, discussion,  analogy ;  while  knowledge  is  the  result  of 
observation,  experiment,  comparison.  Knowledge  must 
rest  on  accurate  analysis,  belief  depends  on  an  assumption 
of  accuracy.  Belief  may  lead  to  knowledge,  but  it  is  quite 
as  likely  to  lead  to  error.  Knowledge  may  be  verified  be- 
lief, but  more  than  likely  it  is  verified  heresy.  Belief 
strengthens  with  passing  years  and  the  longer  it  is  held  the 
less  open  to  evidence  the  believer  becomes.  Knowledge  is 
always  seeking  new  tests  of  its  own  adequacy.  Belief  thus 
becomes  a  means  of  checking  progress ;  knowledge  demands 
more  knowledge  to  explain  the  things  as  yet  not  under- 
stood. In  early  man  these  two  attitudes  must  have  been 
blended  and  confused  as  often  as  they  are  today  but  the 
distinction  is  clear. 

Out  of  this  medley  of  knowledge  and  belief  arise  the 
customs,  folkways,  standards  and  institutions  by  which 
man's  life  is  regulated.  To  them  he  subscribes  and  uses 
all  his  power  to  make  his  children  subscribe.  Finally 
these  appear  as  family,  church,  state  and  all  the  rest, 
occupying  more  or  less  distinct  fields.  Not  so  in  early 
days.  Life  is  still  a  unit.  There  is  no  clear,  sharp  think- 
ing from  different  standpoints,  hence  there  is  no  definite 


356         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

separation  of  the  functions  of  different  agencies.  They 
overlap  in  endless  confusion.  Only  gradually  do  they 
assume  more  specialized  tasks  and  their  functions  in  dif- 
ferent lands  by  no  means  agree. 

In  course  of  time  man  comes  to  think  of  his  earthly 
career  as  merely  part  of  a  continued  existence.  He  por- 
trays the  future  as  offering  rewards  and  punishments  for 
virtue  or  vice  and  thus  gains  a  tremendous  support  for 
the  standards  he  is  attempting  to  teach  the  young.  More- 
over, this  conception  eases  mightily  some  of  his  ethical 
problems.  Vice  is  not  always  punished  on  earth,  virtue 
is  often  its  own  only  reward,  but  if  there  is  a  future  life 
we  may  expect  punishment  for  the  wicked  or  the  oppressor 
and  compensation  for  the  one  who  has  endured  hardship 
here.  This  leads  to  the  conception  that  there  is  a  standard 
of  right  and  wrong  not  based  on  the  relative  and  fluctuating 
conditions  of  everyday  life.  All  human  groups  have  tried 
to  develop  this  final  standard  because  of  its  marked  influ- 
ence on  present  conduct,  if  for  no  other  reason. 

There  arise  thus  at  least  three  sets  of  moralities  whose 
interrelations  are  often  confusing.  There  is  first  the 
morality  of  the  group  to  which  any  individual  belongs. 
A  little  contact  with  other  groups  reveals  the  fact  that 
they  have  their  own  standards  and  that  they  differ  in 
many  ways.  Above  these  is  the  ethical  or  religious 
standard  which  in  its  turn  often  differs  materially  from 
the  other  codes.  To  which  of  these  sets  is  obedience  due  ? 
Primitive  man  has  no  trouble  in  answering  this  question. 
The  code  of  the  outsider  has  no  application  to  him  though 
it  may  do  for  the  outsider.  Morality  lies  in  the  whole- 
hearted acceptance  and  execution  of  the  group  code  which 
is  usually  thought  of  as  acceptable  to  God.  It  is  only  an 
advanced  society  involving  many  and  conflicting  elements 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  357 

that  becomes  conscious  of  a  final  code  held  as  an  ideal  and 
often  not  applicable  under  present  conditions.  The  moral 
man  then  is  he  who  does  as  the  group  standards  dictate. 
Added  esteem  may  sometimes  be  won  by  doing  more  than 
is  demanded,  never  by  doing  less. 

Every  child  born  enters  into  a  world  of  customs,  insti- 
tutions and  ideals  which  is  as  real  as  the  physical  world 
itself.  If  he  is  to  survive  and  ultimately  play  his  part 
as  a  man  among  men,  his  adaptation  to  his  social  environ- 
ment must  be  quite  as  real  and  thorough  as  that  to  the 
natural  environment.  Inasmuch  as  his  social  equipment 
at  birth  is  almost  nothing,  this  means  that  a  long  period 
of  training  is  necessary  ere  he  be  fitted  to  stand  by  himself. 

The  human  being  has  an  exceptionally  long  infancy. 
The  average  life  of  an  animal  is  about  seven  times  the 
period  of  immaturity.  If  this  were  true  of  man  his  aver- 
age age  at  death  would  be  120  instead  of  40  or  thereabouts. 
This  long  childhood  means,  as  compared  with  other  ani- 
mals, a  peculiarly  close  and  intimate  relationship  with 
the  mother,  a  very  slow  maturing  of  the  tissues  of  the 
body,  and  above  all  else,  so  far  as  can  be  seen,  an  oppor- 
tunity for  that  necessary  social  training  on  which  so  much 
depends.  Man  must  be  further  developed  than  other 
animals  ere  he  can  be  independent,  and  civilized  man  must 
have  more  training  than  the  average  ere  he  starts  out  for 
himself.  The  Indian  boy  of  12  probably  knew  more  of 
the  necessary  facts,  was  better  skilled  in  the  necessary 
arts  of  life,  and  stood  a  better  chance  of  survival  if  thrown 
on  his  own  resources  than  any  American  boy  of  15  or  18. 
That  is  to  say,  the  former's  training  was  more  complete, 
which  also  means  that  the  later  developments  were  far  less 
than  is  possible  now  for  the  American  boy.  Early  matur- 
ity means  relatively  a  low  grade  of  accomplishment.  In 


358         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

those  callings  requiring  an  exceptional  degree  of  intellec- 
tual development  the  European  or  American  youth  of 
today  must  be  supported  by  his  parents  until  he  is  25  or 
30  and  even  then  his  own  development  is  far  from  complete. 
The  mere  preparation  of  a  child  to  lead  the  "  higher  life  " 
is  an  extremely  difficult  and  expensive  process,  involving 
endless  opportunities  for  serious  and  costly  mistakes  in 
method,  with  the  possibility  of  having  attempted  to  make 
a  gander  into  a  swan  after  all.  Disregarding  the  blunders 
of  judgment,  it  is  clear  that  only  those  to  whom  come 
the  greatest  opportunities  of  training  can  ever  do  the  most 
difficult  tasks  of  society. 

In  addition  to  the  purely  personal  relationships  of 
parents,  children,  friends  and  associates,  each  child  enters 
a  world  in  which  public  opinion  in  many  ways  has  been 
more  or  less  formally  organized.  These  social  institutions 
are  the  agencies  by  which  man  standardizes  and  regulates : 

(a)  his  adaptation  to  the  physical  world;  (b)  his  attain- 
ment and  use  of  wealth ;  (c)  his  relations  to  fellow  men ; 
(d)  his  relations  to  the  gods. 

Their  basis  and  justification  lie  in  the  needs  of  man, 
primarily  in  the  great  needs  of  (a)  self-preservation  and 

(b)  group-preservation    or    reproduction.     Their    great 
merit  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  a  real  sense  they  represent 
the  collective  judgment  of  the  group  which  is  likely  to 
be  wiser  than  that  of  the  individual,   particularly  the 
young  individual  whose  outlook  on  the  world  is  still  nar- 
row.    "  Experience,"  said  Franklin,  "  keeps  a  dear  school, 
but  fools  will  learn  in  no  other." 

All  institutions  involve,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
some  constraint  over  the  actions  of  the  individual.  The 
desired  conformity  to  standard  may  be  brought  about  by 
the  use  of  force  if  necessary,  as  by  the  state,  but  more 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  359 

likely  is  secured  by  the  mere  fact  that  the  average  person 
imitates  the  habits  and  customs  of  his  associates.  The 
fear  of  ridicule,  of  seeming  to  be  queer  makes  the  use  of 
force  unnecessary  in  the  main.  In  most  regards  then  the 
average  individual  conforms  to  custom  because  it  is  easier 
than  non-conforming. 

The  four  great  ends  of  social  institutions  may  now  be 
considered  a  bit  more  in  detail.  As  we  have  seen,  life 
without  adaptation  to  the  physical  world  is  unthinkable. 
We  may  then  consider  this  as  a  purely  personal  question, 
but  it  has  social  aspects  as  well.  Clothing  is  designed  to 
protect  the  body  but  in  organized  society  the  wearing  of 
clothing  is  not  wholly  left  to  the  wishes  of  the  individual. 
Out  of  the  habit  of  wearing  clothes  arose  the  ideas  of 
modesty  as  to  the  display  of  the  body.  Hence  social 
conventions,  differing  most  instructively  and  amusingly 
from  place  to  place  on  earth,  require  the  covering  of  this 
or  that  portion  of  the  body  and  sharply  penalize  the  one 
who  disregards  the  edict.  In  our  country  the  face  is  not 
ordinarily  covered,  but  in  Mohammedan  lands  the  woman 
who  uncovers  her  face  is  considered  most  immodest.  In 
addition  to  requiring  some  clothing,  the  particular  articles 
to  be  worn  are  not  wholly  decided  by  the  individual.  The 
girl  who  dresses  in  boy's  clothing  is  very  likely  to  be 
arrested.  He  is  a  very  ignorant  or  a  very  bold,  confident 
individual  who  wears  a  red  necktie  when  evening  dress 
is  expected. 

Food  may  seem  to  be  a  personal  matter,  but  it  is  not. 
That  which  may  be  eaten  is  largely  a  matter  of  custom. 
Cannibalism  has  largely  disappeared  from  earth  and  even 
in  dire  emergencies  I  suppose  most  civilized  persons  would 
starve  rather  than  eat  human  flesh.  We  eat  crabs  and 
lobsters,  but  draw  the  line  on  cats  and  dogs.  Moreover, 


360         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  manner,  time  and  place  of  eating  are  pretty  carefully 
regulated  by  customs  which  few  disregard. 

Our  bodies,  like  our  clothes,  must  be  washed  whether 
they  need  it  or  not,  if  we  are  to  keep  our  standing  in 
society.  Our  houses  too  are  more  or  less  regulated  by 
law  and  custom. 

That  these  standards  have  certain  great  advantages  in 
spite  of  the  amusement  they  may  afford  is  plainly  evi- 
dent. Just  now  we  are  concerned  with  the  fact  rather 
than  with  the  attempt  to  justify  or  condemn  the  re- 
sults. 

One  great  prerequisite  of  civilization  is  wealth.  So  long 
as  man  had  to  use  all  energy  and  time  in  securing  the 
bare  necessities  of  physical  life  there  was  no  chance  for 
progress.  Whenever  and  wherever  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  have  a  surplus  beyond  the  moment's  needs  he  had 
a  chance  to  devise  ways  and  means  for  keeping  ahead  and 
to  use  articles  or  materials  previously  unavailable.  Now 
all  wealth  is  produced  by  the  application  of  man's  talents 
to  the  reshaping  or  relocating  of  natural  objects,  that  is 
by  work.  If  greater  wealth  is  to  be  created,  his  efforts 
must  be  more  wisely  or  productively  used.  If  increased 
efforts  either  of  mind  or  body  are  to  be  secured,  greater 
incentives  must  be  found.  Probably  the  greatest  incentive 
yet  devised  is  private  property.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  this  like  all  other  institutions  was  of  slow  gradual 
growth.  It  must  have  originated  in  the  peculiarly  per- 
sonal objects  such  as  clothing  or  weapons  made  by  the  in- 
dividual for  his  own  use.  Ultimately  the  idea  was  ex- 
tended until  it  embraced  the  ownership  of  the  earth  it- 
self and  included  the  right  to  give,  sell  or  transmit  by  in- 
heritance that  which  had  been  accumulated,  to  others.  Yet 
in  all  ages  society  has  sought,  not  always  successfully,  to 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  361 

control  the  method  of  acquiring  property,  its  use,  its  dis- 
position. 

Even  before  the  existence  of  private  property  there 
was  the  need  of  regulating  the  relations  of  man  to  man. 
The  emotions  of  friendship  or  of  anger  might  easily  lead 
to  results  either  good  or  bad  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
group.  Hence  all  history  teems  with  illustrations  of  the 
attempt  of  society  to  secure  the  acceptance  of  standards 
of  conduct  with  reference  to  others,  that  the  individual 
and  the  group  might  be  protected  and  peace  and  welfare 
secured. 

It  has  also  been  believed  that  we  were  surrounded  by 
invisible  hosts  of  beings,  of  indefinite  and  perhaps  in- 
finite power,  both  good  and  bad,  whose  opportunities  for 
influencing  our  lives  were  endless.  Hence  man's  atti- 
tude towards  these  unseen  spirits  and  the  effect  of  his  ac- 
tions upon  them  have  been  matters  of  deep  public  con- 
cern. In  no  part  of  our  life  has  there  been  greater  effort 
than  to  secure  that  uniform  attitude  of  respect  and  wor- 
ship, of  trust  and  belief  considered  desirable.  Moreover 
this  attempt  has  been,  in  the  main,  wonderfully  success- 
ful. To  such  an  extent  has  this  effort  been  carried  that 
not  only  the  outward  acts  of  man  have  been  examined  but 
his  mind  searched  to  make  sure  that  his  ideas  and  be- 
liefs were  in  accord  with  the  accepted  standards. 

Into  this  social  world,  then,  man  is  born  and  to  its  de- 
crees he  must  in  the  main  submit.  There  is  a  lot  of 
loose,  careless  talk  today  of  personal  rights,  by  which  ex- 
pression is  meant  not  the  privileges  granted  to  the  in- 
dividual by  society  but  rights  that  are  his  because  he  is. 
One  might  as  well  say  that  black  is  white.  Rights  come 
from  society,  are  determined  wisely  or  unwisely  by  society ; 
and  to  speak  of  individual  rights  as  other  than  these 


362         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

privileges  is  absurd.  I  live  provided  I  do  or  do  not  do 
the  things  commanded  or  forbidden  by  society.  I  can 
escape  only  by  taking  my  own  life,  which  is  forbidden,  or 
by  escaping  to  some  wilderness  which  no  longer  exists  and 
to  which  I  do  not  want  to  go  anyhow.  So  long  as  I  re- 
main a  normal  human  being,  desiring  the  companionship  of 
friends,  I  am  subject  to  group  control.  I  may  have  the 
power  to  work  my  will  regardless  of  group  standards,  but 
I  exercise  that  power  at  my  own  risk. 

Inasmuch  as  institutions  grow  out  of  human  needs  it 
follows  that  once  these  needs  are  appreciated  and  the  in- 
stitutions developed,  they  must  last  as  long  as  the  need 
remains.  There  should  be  then  no  anxiety  about  the  per- 
manency of  such  institutions  as  family,  church  and  state. 
He  who  bewails  their  decline  but  betrays  his  own  meager 
understanding  of  the  situation.  What  he  really  means  is 
that  the  particular  form  in  which  he  is  interested  is  threat- 
ened, which  is  a  very  different  matter.  So  long  as  children 
must  be  trained  there  will  be  schools,  so  long  as  men  and 
women  fall  in  love  there  will  be  families,  so  long  as  com- 
mon safety  and  existence  demand  protection  there  will  be 
states,  and  so  long  as  thoughtful  men  ponder  the  nature 
of  the  universe  and  speculate  as  to  its  meaning  there  will 
be  churches.  History  however  teems  with  records  of 
forms  now  gone,  and  the  death  notices  of  our  own  may 
some  day  be  written  and  the  men  of  a  later  age  will 
probably  rejoice  just  as  we  do  when  we  consider  what 
once  was. 

Though  institutions  are  organized  to  meet  human  needs 
it  by  no  means  follows  that  they  are  always  beneficial. 
This  may  result  from  several  causes.  We  may  make  a 
faulty  diagnosis  of  the  situation.  To  borrow  an  illustra- 
tion from  the  medical  field,  we  may  be  conscious  of  in- 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  363 

tense  pain  in  our  bodies  which  we  attribute  to  something 
we  have  eaten  when  in  reality  the  trouble  starts  in  our  de- 
fective eyes.  Until  this  fact  is  discovered  our  remedies 
are  not  likely  to  give  more  than  passing  relief.  So  we 
are  told  of  the  attempts  to  stop  disease  by  the  hounding  of 
alleged  witches;  to  secure  abundant  game  or  harvests  by 
various  mystic  rites  of  no  real  bearing  on  the  situation; 
to  secure  rain  by  prayer  or  ward  off  storms  by  incanta- 
tions. 

Progress  may  be  prevented  by  the  survival  of  old  beliefs 
and  superstitions.  The  iron  plowshare  was  not  invented 
till  late  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  its  use  was  strongly 
condemned  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  insult  to  God,  that 
it  poisoned  the  soil  and  made  weeds  grow.  In  spite  of  our 
present  knowledge  of  disease,  charms  and  amulets  find 
wide  use,  while  "  malicious  animal  magnetism  "  and  the 
"  conjure-man  "  still  dispute  the  field  with  the  doctor. 

The  conflict  of  different  standards  causes  much  diffi- 
culty. The  growing  unity  of  the  world  through  means  of 
communication  and  transportation  is  setting  various  group 
standards  in  sharp  contrast.  When  races  mingle,  as  in 
the  United  States,  there  is  great  danger  that  many  in- 
dividuals will  desert  the  old  morality  without  adopting 
the  new.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  that  lawlessness 
which  gives  us  so  much  concern.  The  Christian  Church 
deserves  great  respect,  but  what  must  be  the  reaction  of 
the  Chinese  or  the  Indian  who  sees  the  many  quarrels 
between  Catholics  and  Protestants,  the  disputes  over  apos- 
tolic succession  or  immersion,  the  emphasis  laid  upon 
Trinitarianism  or  Unitarianism  ? 

The  ambition  to  exercise  power  is  one  of  the  strongest 
forces  in  man.  Great,  well-organized  institutions  offer 
a  specially  favorable  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  such 


364         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

power,  particularly  when  they  possess  inherited  wealth. 
When  therefore  a  professional  class  is  developed,  more  or 
less  self-perpetuating  and  self-chosen,  there  is  an  almost 
irresistible  temptation  to  utilize  their  position  for  selfish 
ends.  This  temptation  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
they  sincerely  believe  they  are  the  fittest  to  govern  others, 
that  they  know  what  is  best  for  humanity,  and  that 
they  are  exercising  their  power  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 
When  this  stage  is  reached  the  people  are  taught  that  the 
institution  is  an  end  in  itself ;  that  they  owe  a  duty  to 
maintain  the  institution  as  it  is.  If  this  idea  is  accepted 
the  way  of  the  exploiter  is  easy.  From  time  to  time  now 
this,  now  that  institution  has  thus  been  used  to  further 
selfish  ends,  while  the  people  suffer  and  pay  the  bills  until 
the  day  of  reckoning  comes. 

Human  nature  is  one  of  the  most  fixed  and  unchanging 
elements  we  know.  Our  needs  and  desires  are  about 
the  same  as  those  of  men  of  eras  gone  by;  our  capacity 
even  seems  little  increased  in  thousands  of  years. 
The  high  school  boy  of  today  knows  more  of  the  actual 
world  than  Aristotle,  but  teachers  find  few  Aristotles  in 
their  classes.  The  world  in  which  we  live  however  is  con- 
stantly undergoing  change.  If  it  were  not  for  this  fact 
it  would  be  possible  to  work  out  a  relatively  final  and 
complete  adjustment  between  man  and  his  environment 
and  thus  develop  a  static  condition  in  which  we  might  con- 
tentedly follow  the  practices  of  our  ancestors  for  count- 
less ages.  A  few  groups,  notably  the  Chinese,  have  done 
this.  In  most  cases  it  has  not  been  possible,  in  part  for 
the  following  reasons: 

The  drying  up  of  Asia,  to  which  reference  was  made 
in  the  first  chapter,  has  set  in  motion  great  migrations  of 
peoples  who  have  forced  themselves  into  other  civilizations 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  365 

and  caused  great  upheavals  in  customs  and  institutions. 
Man  himself  has  started  many  of  these  changes  by  his 
inventions  and  discoveries  which  have  opened  new  worlds 
to  his  view  and  profoundly  affected  the  course  of  his  de- 
velopment. Because  of  these  two  great  sets  of  causes  the 
environment  of  man,  both  physical  and  social,  is  usually 
more  or  less  in  a  state  of  flux ;  hence  there  is  constant  need 
of  change  if  there  is  to  be  the  desired  degree  of  adaptation 
between  man  and  his  environment. 

The  problem  is  further  complicated  by  the  increase  in 
size  of  the  units  of  society.  Classes  and  castes  appear,  the 
activities  of  men  are  more  specialized  and  that  program 
which  may  suit  one  section  of  a  people  or  country  may 
not  meet  the  needs  of  other  groups  or  districts  at  all.  Un- 
equal rates  of  change  will  appear  and  general  and  orderly 
progress  may  be  impossible. 

Hence  the  course  of  civilization  is  not  a  slow  and  steady 
climb  on  an  even  grade  but  must  be  compared  to  a  trail 
over  the  mountains  where,  after  climbing  some  shoulder 
for  hours  till  the  top  is  in  sight,  one  must  descend  many 
thousands  of  feet  into  some  ravine  ere  the  road  starts 
upwards  again.  So  complex  has  the  situation  become  that 
certain  parts  of  the  population  may  be  climbing  while 
others  are  going  down  hill ;  while  this  may  be  true  even 
within  the  individual,  when  one  looks  at  different  parts  of 
his  life. 

Civilization  then  involves  several  distinct  elements. 
There  must  be  the  provision  of  the  material  bases  without 
which  he  may  not  attain  higher  standards ;  there  must  be 
a  dissatisfaction  with  that  which  is  or  man  will  not  put 
forth  the  effort  necessary;  there  must  be  some  promise  of 
reward  for  success,  and  finally  but  by  no  means  least,  there 
must  be  a  glimpse  of  the  spiritual  values,  a  willingness  to 


366         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

utilize  the  gains  for  the  benefit  of  the  body  politic,  rather 
than  for  selfish  ease. 

Granted  the  general  accuracy  of  these  propositions,  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  we  have  not  yet  arrived  at  the  heights 
possible  nor  has  the  way  been  uniformly  pleasant.  Look- 
ing back  from  our  present  position  we  catch  glimpses  of 
the  ground  that  has  been  covered  and  see  occasional  sug- 
gestions in  the  condition  of  existing  peoples  of  earlier 
stages  in  our  life.  Here  we  see  a  fishing  or  hunting  peo- 
ple in  some  isolated  region,  say  the  Eskimos,  following  the 
same  methods  and  maintaining  the  same  level  for  ages. 
Elsewhere  we  see  signs  of  rapid  change  and  marvel  at  the 
rapid  development  of  Japan  or  bewail  the  downfall  of  the 
old  Greek  culture. 

One  thing  becomes  clear.  However  necessary  and  de- 
sirable is  change  it  brings  new  problems  with  it  and  the 
most  significant  results  are  often  not  those  sought  or  prom- 
ised. Few  Americans  dreamed  that  the  struggle  which 
was  to  free  the  slaves  would  end  by  making  them  citizens 
with  theoretically  equal  voice  in  matters  political.  Fewer 
anticipated  that  the  adoption  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment would  lead  to  the  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  that 
corporations  were  persons  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  while 
no  one  probably  anticipated  the  levying  of  an  income  tax 
on  all  persons.  The  truth  is  then  that  expediency,  not 
some  final  code  of  ethics,  underlies  all  changes  in  social 
programs  and  is  responsible  for  many  of  the  resulting 
problems. 

To  put  it  in  another  way :  the  older  conception  was  that 
originally  man  was  pure  and  undefiled;  that  he  lived  un- 
der ideal  conditions  which  he  lost  because  of  his  own 
wickedness.  Then  followed  an  era  in  which  we  were 
taught  that  man  had  started  from  his  animal  base  and 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  367 

had  gradually  climbed  the  heights ;  but  that  owing  to  free 
will  he  was  able  to  select  either  the  good  or  evil  with  full 
preknowledge  of  the  results  of  his  acts,  and  that  therefore 
the  evil  of  the  world  was  of  his  own  creation,  even  though 
some  still  stressed  the  influence  of  Satan.  The  measure 
of  truth  in  these  attitudes  does  not  concern  us  here,  but 
it  is  evident  that  they  ignore  a  larger  truth  which  is  be- 
coming ever  clearer.  The  problems  of  vice,  crime  and 
sin  have  increased  with  civilization  rather  than  dimin- 
ished ;  not  because  of  man's  deliberate  wickedness,  but  be- 
cause of  his  blindness.  In  his  search  for  wealth  he  has 
ignored  the  fact  that  wealth  produces  problems  as  well  as 
poverty.  Until  he  sees  that  the  social  results  of  changes 
in  his  life  require  rapid  readjustment  of  his  programs 
and  ideals,  this  paradox  will  continue.  To  make  this 
viewpoint  clear,  let  us  consider  some  of  the  great  changes 
which  modern  inventions  have  produced,  whether  good  or 
bad. 

Not  long  ago  the  overwhelming  mass  of  people  of  Eu- 
rope and  America  were  farmers,  living  a  relatively  isolated 
life  in  scattered  and  largely  independent  households. 
Each  household  was  a  unit  producing  the  bulk  of  the  raw 
commodities  it  needed  and  changing  these  by  a  process  of 
manufacture  into  the  clothes  or  other  necessities.  The 
little  imported  from  the  outside  came  largely  by  trade  or 
barter.  The  child  grew  up  with  the  parents  sharing  their 
life,  learning  the  processes  of  industry,  seeing  and  ap- 
preciating the  meaning  of  the  different  processes.  The 
life  was  simple  and  self-contained,  the  groups  permanent, 
blood  relationship  dominant.  Then  came  the  great  series 
of  inventions  which  resulted  in  machine-facture  rather 
than  manufacture.  The  result  of  this  greatly  enhanced 
power  increased  the  products  of  labor  many  fold.  In 


368         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

theory  then  man  might  now  work  shorter  hours  and  have 
larger  returns  than  before.  In  part  this  has  proven  true 
but  other  and  disturbing  factors  have  appeared. 

Power  machinery  by  centralizing  industry  compelled 
a  re-location  of  population  and  produced  the  modern  city. 
This  forced  a  specialization  in  occupation  and  drew  the 
people  away  from  the  land  until,  as  in  Belgium  the  most 
densely  populated  country  in  Europe  (659  per  square 
mile),  only  one-fourth  of  the  people  are  classed  as  agri- 
cultural and  they  produce  less  than  one-half  of  the  cereals 
they  consume.  By  this  specialization  and  the  change  from 
a  barter  basis  to  cash  sale  the  returns  of  industry  flow  into 
the  treasury  of  the  company  and  the  difficulties  of  a 
proper  and  satisfactory  distribution  among  the  workers 
are  enormously  enhanced.  Whereas  formerly  owner,  man- 
ager and  worker  were  largely  synonymous  terms,  now  three 
distinct  and  often  unacquainted  if  not  antagonistic  groups 
appear.  By  specialization,  the  worker  performing  only 
some  one  or  two  minute  parts  of  work  loses  the  emotional 
reaction  which  comes  to  the  creator  of  a  finished  product 
and  comes  to  think  of  himself  in  terms  of  a  machine. 
Confirmation  of  this  is  afforded  by  an  incident  which  oc- 
curred recently  in  a  school  for  feeble-minded  children. 
Thinking  to  interest  the  children  and  secure  some  useful 
products  some  looms  for  the  making  of  rag  carpets  were 
introduced.  The  children  were  given  the  task  of  making 
long  strips  of  carpet.  At  first  all  went  well,  then  all  in- 
terest was  lost  and  no  one  wanted  to  work.  Inquiry  finally 
brought  from  a  boy  the  comment,  "  Oh,  you  don't  never  get 
nothing  done."  The  answer  was  appreciated  —  the  long 
strips  forgotten.  Now  only  short  rugs  are  made,  which 
one  pupil  can  finish  in  a  few  periods,  and  the  looms  rattle 
merrily  all  day  long.  Over  against  the  evident  and  de- 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  369 

sirable  increase  in  productivity  must  be  set  certain  great 
problems  which  we  here  list  without  attempt  at  solution. 

Physical  effects:  diseases  peculiar  to  occupations  such 
as  lead  poisoning;  accidents  due  to  fatigue;  indoor  life 
with  the  increased  liability  to  germ  diseases  helped  along 
by  lack  of  sunlight  and  by  dust. 

Social  effects:  congestion  in  cities;  changed  conditions 
of  home  and  family  life;  problems  of  labor  and  capital; 
problems  of  industrial  organization ;  problems  of  vice  and 
crime  due  in  part  to  breakdown  of  old  associations  and 
institutions;  breakdown  of  old  emotional  reactions; 
changed  problems  of  education. 

Not  one  of  these  great  questions  of  modern  life  is  due 
primarily  to  any  deliberate  selfish  attempt  to  exploit  fel- 
low men.  They  grow  out  of  the  changed  conditions  which 
no  man  could  foresee,  and  lacking  foresight  could  not  pre- 
vent. Yet  they  must  be  solved  if  society  is  to  flourish. 

"  Progress,"  says  Giddings,  "  is  a  form  of  motion  and, 
like  other  forms  of  motion,  starts  reactions  against  itself." 
There  are  two  ways  of  committing  suicide.  One  may 
take  his  life  by  use  of  knife  or  revolver,  by  a  dose  of  prussic 
acid  and  the  end  comes  quickly;  or  he  may  gradually 
poison  the  system  by  opium  or  lead  until  slow  death  is 
produced.  It  is  equally  possible  for  a  given  society  to 
introduce  programs  which  must  ultimately  lead  to  decay 
even  though  the  separate  steps  produce  no  perceptible 
result.  The  point  is  that  we  must  realize  what  progress 
costs  and  stand  ready  to  pay  the  bills  whenever  they  are 
presented  or  else  witness  the  downfall  of  our  culture. 
There  is  nothing  inherent  within  us  which  leads  always 
to  right  choices  or  wise  programs,  whether  of  the  individ- 
ual or  the  group.  This  fact  is  often  ignored. 

At  all  times  we  find  in  the  community  two  types  of 


370         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

men,  though  they  may  exist  in  a  given  man  as  regards 
different  things,  which  we  may  term  the  conservative  and 
the  radical.  A  comparison  of  the  two  is  instructive. 

The  conservative  usually  comes  from  a  group  that  has 
been  successful  under  the  old  regime.  He  sees  that  the 
old  program  has  worked  well  for  his  friends  and  assumes 
that  it  must  serve  others  equally  well,  or  that  it  is  their 
own  fault  if  it  does  not.  These  "  others  "  he  seldom  knows 
personally.  He  does  not  meet  them  in  his  parlors,  his 
clubs  or  his  church.  Knowing  the  value  of  the  old  and 
realizing  that  new  conditions  may  cause  trouble  he  op- 
poses change,  sincerely,  though  perhaps  mistakenly.  He 
believes  in  his  people  and  his  country  and  is  often  willing 
to  sacrifice  time,  money,  even  life  itself  if  need  be.  If 
of  extreme  type,  we  call  him  the  reactionary  for  he  would 
go  back  to  still  older  standards. 

The  radical,  by  contrast,  is  likely  to  come  from  a  new 
and  relatively  unknown  group.  He  has  nothing  to  lose 
by  change  and  so  welcomes  it.  He  sees  that  the  higher 
positions  are  in  other  hands  and  believes  that  this  is  true 
because  he  and  his  friends  have  no  chance  to  show  what 
they  can  do.  Lacking  power  and  the  restraining  influ- 
ences thereof  he  advocates  change  for  the  sake  of  change. 
He  may  be  equally  high-minded  and  patriotic  and  may  see 
more  clearly  than  his  adversary  the  advantages  of  the  new 
order.  He  is  less  likely  however  to  appreciate  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  present  order,  and  his  desire  to  get  a  hear- 
ing easily  leads  him  to  foolish  and  unwarranted  state- 
ments. 

Where  does  the  truth  lie  as  between  these  men?  It 
must  be  confessed  that  it  lies  wholly  in  neither.  There 
have  been  merits  in  the  present  order  else  it  could  not  have 
endured.  There  are  social  values  which  must  be  pre- 


SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS  371 

served.  Nevertheless  improvement  can  only  come  through 
change,  and  therefore  the  change  must  come  even  though 
it  brings  troubles  in  its  train. 

Man  is  likely  to  boast  that  he  is  governed  by  his  intellect 
and  that  his  decisions  are  based  on  a  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  merits  of  a  question.  This  is  seldom  true. 
The  dominant  forces  are  emotional  not  intellectual  in  the 
average  man  at  all  times  and  often  in  the  exceptional 
man.  He  is  a  foolish  leader  of  the  public  who  deals  with 
his  followers  on  an  intellectual  basis  solely.  He  tells  them 
that  he  will  convince  their  minds  but  what  he  really  does  is 
to  rub  their  backs  the  right  way.  As  illustration,  the  pro- 
posed new  constitution  for  the  state  of  New  York,  so 
overwhelmingly  defeated  in  1915,  was  a  vast  improvement 
over  the  old,  regardless  of  possible  weaknesses.  It  was 
defeated  by  the  votes  of  thousands,  most  of  whom  it  is 
safe  to  say  had  never  read  it. 

It  follows  then  that  the  solution  of  social  questions  lies 
in  the  readjustment  of  institutions  that  they  may  more 
adequately  meet  present  needs.  We  can  neither  return 
to  the  alleged  ideal  conditions  of  the  past,  nor  yet  hope  for 
a  solution  through  some  panacea  which  is  the  forerunner 
of  Utopia. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  READING 

COOLEY,  C.  H.    Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order.    1902. 
HOBHOUSE,  L.  T.     Morals  in  Evolution.     (3rd  Edit.)     1915. 
KELLER,  A.  G.    Societal  Evolution.    1915. 
KIDD,  B.     Social  Evolution.    1894. 
Ross,  E.  A.    Social  Psychology.    1901. 
SUMNER,  W.  G.    Folkways.    1907. 
WARD,  L.  F.    Pure  Sociology.    1903. 

WESTERMARCK,    E.    Origin    and    Development    of    the    Moral 
Ideas.    1906. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  NATURE  OF  PKOGKESS 

A  million  years  ago  the  physical  world  was  in  all  es- 
sentials the  same  as  it  is  today.  It  is  now  what  it  will 
be  a  million  years  hence,  when  the  things  of  which  even 
Wells  hardly  dreams  are  the  commonplaces  of  every  school 
child.  If  we  compare  ourselves  with  the  men  of  the  early 
days,  there  is  little  reason  to  believe  that  there  has  been 
any  great  change  in  our  nature  or  our  needs.  We  require 
about  as  much  food  and  drink,  we  must  be  kept  as  warm 
and  we  have  about  the  same  strength,  physical  or  mental. 
We  seem  to  be  the  same  in  our  emotions  and  their  expres- 
sions. We  are  no  happier,  no  more  satisfied  with  life, 
no  less  fearful  of  death.  To  be  sure  we  no  longer  con- 
sider these  matters  in  quite  the  same  light,  but  there  is  no 
essential  difference.  Yet  no  one  could  claim  that  great 
and  important  changes  had  not  taken  place  in  the  condi- 
tions of  our  life.  Most  of  these  changes  to  say  the  least 
have  been  brought  about  by  man  himself  through  his 
growing  control  of  the  physical  world.  It  follows  then 
that  the  marked  changes  have  been  in  the  field  of  our 
information,  in  our  power  of  achievement.  We  can  do 
things  because  we  have  learned  how. 

Primitive  man  must  have  lived  in  warm  regions  until 
he  discovered  the  art  of  firemaking  and  invented  clothes. 
Since  that  time  he  has  found  his  greatest  opportunities 
in  the  temperate  zones.  Now  these  are  not  the  richest 
zones,  perhaps,  but  they  are  those  in  which  he  has  found 

372 


THE  NATUEE  OF  PEOGKESS  373 

it  easiest  to  grow  his  crops  and  protect  himself  against 
his  enemies.  So  far  as  we  can  now  see  there  is  no  inher- 
ent reason  why  he  may  not  ultimately  build  up  great 
civilizations  in  the  tropics,  provided  he  can  guard  against 
the  endemic  diseases.  Nature  then  may  be  said  to  guide 
the  development  of  a  people.  She  does  not  directly  cause 
it,  for  even  where  she  furnishes  the  most  goods  in  return 
for  the  least  effort  man  may  nullify  the  situation  by  the 
calm  acceptance  of  a  policy  of  the  least  possible  work 
for  the  longest  time  possible.  On  the  other  hand  it  is 
hard  for  her  to  check  it  if  once  man  has  gotten  a  glimpse 
of  his  own  power  to  modify  conditions  to  his  liking. 

Because  man's  progress  is  conditioned  on  his  intellectual 
growth  it  by  no  means  follows  that  his  chief  occupation 
is  thinking.  Far  from  it.  There  is  nothing  the  average 
society  dislikes  more.  Man's  effort  to  satisfy  his  emo- 
tional desire  for  an  easy  and  comfortable  existence  results 
in  the  astounding  paradox  that  he  opposes  the  only  method 
through  which  better  adaptation  might  come.  He  may  be 
indifferent  to  studies  which  have,  or  seem  to  have,  no  prac- 
tical importance,  or  may  even  welcome  them  and  support 
them  as  badges  of  distinction  or  as  an  opportunity  to  dis- 
play his  own  generosity.  Thus  he  digs  up  the  bones  of  the 
ancients  or  collects  the  clothing  and  utensils  of  existing 
savages.  He  may  even  openly  support  any  attempt  to  dis- 
cover ways  and  means  of  bettering  industrial  processes 
providing  they  promise  larger  returns.  He  welcomes  new 
ways  of  spending  surplus  revenue.  Let  any  one  sug- 
gest that  his  philosophy  of  life  rests  on  unsound  bases, 
that  social  institutions  need  radical  overhauling,  that  pres- 
ent programs  are  not  conducive  to  human  welfare,  that 
other  races  are  surpassing  his  in  the  struggle,  and  he  is  on 
the  defensive  at  once,  ready  to  use  any  brick  or  cudgel  on 


374         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  offender,  or  even  daub  him  with  mud.  The  last  thing 
it  occurs  to  him  to  do  is  to  admit  that  the  criticism  may 
be  honest  and  investigate  it  to  see  what  merit  it  contains. 
This  attitude  is  to  be  found  in  all  races  and  in  all  stages 
of  society  and  adds  much  to  the  joy  of  life  to  him  who 
has  a  sense  of  humor  but  adds  much  to  the  needless  bur- 
dens of  life  as  well. 

The  great  contrast  in  the  intellectual  life  of  civilized 
men  as  compared  to  savages  lies  in  the  superiority  of  the 
tools  with  which  the  former  work.  For  long  ages  the 
keenest  and  wisest  men  have  been  working  in  the  different 
fields  of  knowledge  and  have  accumulated  a  mass  of  in- 
formation. This  has  been  examined  and  criticized  from 
all  angles  until  that  which  remains  is  in  large  measure 
capable  of  definite  proof.  It  is  this  which  is  taught  the 
oncoming  generation  as  truth  and  which  is  accepted  by 
them  and  used  as  the  basis  of  their  studies.  It  follows 
then  that  we  all  embody  in  our  explanations  the  theories 
which  we  have  learned.  We  cannot  take  the  time  to 
furnish  all  the  evidence  for  every  claim.  "  We  are  only 
too  apt,  however,  to  forget  entirely  the  general,  and  for 
most  of  us  purely  traditional,  theoretical  basis  which  is 
the  foundation  of  our  reasoning,  and  to  assume  that  the 
result  of  our  reasoning  is  absolute  truth.  In  this  we 
commit  the  same  error  that  is  committed  by  all  the  less 
civilized  peoples.  .  .  .  There  is  an  undoubted  tendency 
in  the  advance  of  civilization  to  eliminate  traditional  ele- 
ments, and  to  get  a  clearer  and  clearer  insight  into 
the  hypothetical  basis  of  our  reasoning.  It  is  therefore 
not  surprising,  that,  with  the  advance  of  civilization, 
reasoning  becomes  more  and  more  logical,  not  be- 
cause each  individual  carries  out  his  thought  in  a 
more  logical  manner,  not  because  the  traditional  ma- 


THE  NATURE  OF  PROGRESS  375 

terial  which  is  handed  down  to  each  individual  has  been 
thought  out  and  worked  out  more  thoroughly  and  more 
carefully."  1 

In  the  above  paragraph  Professor  Boas  calls  attention  to 
two  great  truths,  both  of  which  are  often  ignored.  Our 
own  thought  rests  on  certain  concepts  such  as  the  doctrines 
of  the  sun-centered  universe,  or  the  doctrine  of  physical 
evolution.  We  simply  assume  these  as  the  common  basis  of 
discussion  among  educated  men.  We  do  not  stop  to  prove 
them;  indeed  many  who  lightly  take  them  for  granted 
would  find  extreme  difficulty  in  offering  acceptable  evi- 
dence. To  most  of  us  then  they  are  traditional,  as  truly 
as  the  earth-centered,  special  creation  concepts  were  to 
men  of  the  older  time.  The  advantage  most  of  us  have 
over  the  men  of  the  older  time  lies  in  the  criticism  to 
which  the  older  views  have  been  subjected  and  to  the 
fact  that  a  clearer  perception  of  the  truth  has  resulted 
from  the  criticism.  Our  traditions  are  better,  hence  our 
views  are  more  accurate.  Had  we  lived  in  the  older 
time  we  should  have  accepted  the  then  current  tradition 
with  as  little  question  as  we  now  show  to  present  tradition. 

If  knowledge  has  been  the  key  to  the  changes,  why  has 
there  not  been  a  constant,  even  if  irregular,  ascent  of  the 
race  ?  The  answer  lies  close  at  hand.  Knowledge  is  not 
always  equally  appreciated  or  evenly  distributed,  nor  is 
it  always  wisely  used.  Every  change  in  the  possibilities 
of  a  group  requires  a  corresponding  change  in  its  pro- 
grams and  ideals,  else  there  is  trouble  rather  than  ad- 
vance. Because  of  the  emotional  hold  of  old  beliefs  and 
customs  knowledge  often  appears  as  a  disturbing  element 
and  does  not  get  a  proper  hearing.  Inasmuch  as  the 
average  man  considers  existence  as  most  fundamental, 

i  BOAS,  F.     The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man,  pp.  205-206. 


376         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

new  knowledge  is  probably  more  welcomed  in  the  field  of 
industry  than  anywhere  else. 

In  no  small  measure  due  to  the  industrial  development 
which  increasing  knowledge  has  made  possible,  there  has 
been  an  enormous  enlargement  of  the  groups  which  func- 
tion as  units.  In  early  stages  there  is  a  small  circle 
of  parents  and  children  more  or  less  fused  with,  more  or 
less  distinct  from,  the  larger  clan  or  tribe.  In  fact,  or 
in  belief,  they  are  all  related  by  descent.  At  this  stage 
all  virtues  and  vices  are  personal,  individualistic.  Per- 
sonal might  rules  in  all  conflicts,  determines  all  vexed 
questions,  is  the  basis  of  social  standards.  Yet  even  here 
the  necessity  of  caring  for  children  is  beginning  the  de- 
velopment of  other  ideas.  As  the  groups  grow  in  size 
group  virtues  emerge.  Duties  are  owed  to  fellows  of 
the  group  which  are  not  owed  to  outsiders.  The  group 
becomes  the  nation  and  the  group  virtues  are  summed 
up  in  the  word  "  patriotism."  Now  a  certain  geographi- 
cal area  is  the  outer  fringe  of  the  field  of  many  virtues 
both  positive  and  negative,  or  the  country  is  symbolized 
by  a  flag  and  extends  wherever  the  flag  flies.  But  the 
world  through  commerce  and  easy  communication,  through 
books  and  the  knowledge  of  common  languages,  tends  to 
become  a  unit;  and  feeble  germs  of  international  law 
arise  as  if  spontaneously;  but  alas!  lacking  father  and 
mother  to  fight  for  them,  they  quickly  perish  in  a  world 
still  mainly  interested  in  home  affairs.  The  ground 
gained,  however,  is  never  wholly  lost  and  age  after  age 
the  essential  unity  of  the  race  is  seen. 

Just  a  century  ago  the  great  Cuvier  said  that  to  speak 
of  a  science  of  geology  was  to  invite  ridicule.  The  aver- 
age man  of  today  thinks  that  it  is  as  old  as  the  hills. 
In  our  own  days  the  attitude  of  Cuvier  is  the  common 


THE  NATURE  OF  PROGRESS  377 

one  manifested  towards  the  social  sciences,  especially 
sociology.  If  human  actions,  group  actions  as  well  as 
individual,  are  governed  by  law,  if  like  causes  under  like 
conditions  produce  like  effects,  there  will  ultimately  arise 
a  science  of  sociology.  It  is  amusing  to  see  many  men 
denying  the  possibility  of  such  a  science  and  then  turning 
around  and  telling  just  what  courses  society  should  follow, 
what  standards  it  should  adopt.  With  the  details  of  the 
struggle  to  develop  such  a  science  we  are  not  now  con- 
cerned but  certain  of  the  views  suggested  are  pertinent 
to  the  discussion. 

The  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  physical  evolution 
was  accompanied  and  paralleled  by  the  application  of  a 
similar  idea  to  things  social.  Not  only  was  the  body  of 
man  made  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  organic  world,  but 
the  development  and  decay  of  his  institutions,  such  as 
church  and  state,  was  explained  in  organic  terms.  This 
hardly  expresses  the  full  truth  for  it  was  taught  that 
social  organs  were  organisms,  and  there  thus  arose  the 
"  organic  theory  of  society "  whose  leading  champions 
were  Schaeffle,  Spencer  and  Lilienfeld.  It  is  not  sug- 
gested that  these  men  thought  of  themselves  as  biologists 
nor  that  they  really  meant  to  do  more  than  take  advan- 
tage of  existing  interests  to  suggest  that  society  was 
analogous  to  an  organism  and  to  trace  this  analogy  as  far 
as  possible.  Much  foolishness  has  resulted  from  a  too 
literal  interpretation  of  their  writings.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  writers  mentioned  have  sometimes  laid 
themselves  open  to  such  misinterpretation. 

Spencer  was  primarily  interested  in  tracing  the  struc- 
ture of  society  and  his  central  idea,  as  Small  well  puts  it, 
is :  "  The  members  of  society,  from  the  very  earliest 
stages,  arrange  themselves  in  somewhat  permanent  forms ; 


378         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

these  forms  rearranged  in  adaptation  to  varying  needs; 
the  forms  are  related,  both  as  to  cause  and  effect,  to  the 
individuals  who  make  up  the  society ;  they  are  thus  factors 
that  may  never  be  left  out  of  account  in  attempts  to 
understand  real  life.2 

Society  is  like  an  organism  in  that  it  grows;  and  as 
it  grows  the  parts  become  unlike  and  their  functions 
change.  Hence  there  comes  to  be  mutual  interdepend- 
ence of  parts.  Some  great  disaster  may  wipe  the  society 
out  of  existence,  but  barring  this  it  lives  longer  than  the 
individuals  composing  it.  Societies  begin  in  small  units 
which  grow.  Growth  is  accompanied  by  increasing  com- 
plexity of  structure.  The  growth  may  be  through  the 
multiplication  of  groups  or  the  increase  by  union  of 
groups.  As  mass  increases  structure  becomes  more  com- 
pound and  with  mutual  dependence  the  parts  become  un- 
like. Like  organisms,  society  must  have  a  sustaining 
system  which  consists  of  the  productive  industries;  a 
distributing  system  which  embraces  communication  and 
commerce  and  a  regulating  system,  i.e.,  government. 
Spencer  thought  that  earlier  society  had  been  primarily 
military,  that  is,  had  been  mainly  concerned  with  the 
protection  of  the  group  or  the  acquisition  of  territory. 
He  said  there  was  a  gradual  change  to  an  industrial  society 
which  necessitated  larger  cooperation  and  a  consequent 
modification  of  the  sustaining,  regulating  and  distribut- 
ing systems.  This  also  meant  a  steady  move  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex  in  accord  with  his  conception  of 
evolution. 

The  man  who  broke  away  from  the  dominant  influence 
of  Spencer  was  a  trained  scientist,  Lester  F.  Ward,  who 
published  in  1883  his  "  Dynamic  Sociology."  In  this 

2  SMALL,  A.  W.    General  Sociology,  p.  153. 


THE  NATUEE  OF  PEOGEESS  379 

i 
he  undertook  to  make  a  sharp  distinction  between  the 

evolution  of  the  world  of  nature  and  the  world  of  society. 
The  latter  is  due  to  the  great  development  of  mind  so 
that  man  in  a  sense  becomes  master  of  the  universe  and 
shapes  it  as  he  will  through  his  power  of  achievement. 
While  achievement  through  man's  intellectual  develop- 
ment is  the  key-note  of  Ward's  philosophy,  other  men  have 
not  failed  to  bring  out  other  of  the  psychic  elements  now 
so  largely  emphasized.  Giddings  has  made  "  conscious- 
ness of  kind  "  the  basis  of  his  system ;  Tarde  has  com- 
pelled recognition  of  the  role  played  by  "  imitation," 
while  Koss  has  emphasized  the  necessity  of  "  social 
control." 

Sumner  and  his  successor  Keller  have  broken  away 
from  the  cruder  comparisons  of  the  older  writers  who 
emphasized  the  biological  factors.  They  recognize  that 
man  is  fundamentally  an  animal,  that  he  is  under  natural 
laws,  and  that  his  attributes,  emotions,  passions  are  likely 
to  remain  what  they  are  regardless  of  his  social  evolu- 
tion. Thus  Keller  writes :  "  I  shall  be  charged,  doubt- 
less, with  '  reasoning  from  analogy/  but  I  do  not  feel 
that  the  charge  is  deserved.  I  find  a  something  in  the 
social  field  which  is  variation,  whether  or  not  it  may  be 
like  what  is  called  variation  in  the  organic  field ;  similarly 
social  selection  is  selection  and  not  merely  like  it.  In 
the  social  field,  also,  there  is  a  means  of  transmission 
having  the  essential  attributes  of  heredity  in  nature ;  and 
adaptation  occurs  in  one  range  of  phenomena  as  in  the 
other."  3 

"  We  see  that  man  possesses  in  the  brain  a  sort  of 
specialized  adapting  organ  which  relieves  the  rest  of  the 
body  from  the  necessity  of  structural  adaptation;  that 

a  KELLEB,  A.  G.     Societal  Evolution,  p.  15. 


380         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  human  mode  of  adaptation  is  thus  mental,  and  that 
it  is  also  social;  that  the  measure  of  human  adaptation 
is  the  degree  of  civilization  attained;  that  the  story  of 
human  evolution  thus  becomes  the  story  of  the  evolution 
of  civilization  in  human  society;  and  that  the  law  of 
population  must  receive  characteristic  modifications  when 
it  is  applied  to  man.  The  brain  becomes  the  organ  of 
adaptation.  Looked  at  in  one  way  it  secures  adaptation 
for  man  by  transforming  his  environment;  but  in  a 
broader  and  truer  sense,  by  learning  the  laws  of  nature 
and  devising  ways  of  conformation  to  them.  But  the 
details  of  this  new  phase  and  mode  of  adaptation  are  no 
longer  matters  of  biology ;  the  reactions  of  the  individual 
are  cerebral  and  psychical.  However,  these  reactions  do 
not  remain  individual  and  isolated,  but  .  .  .  they  become 
societal  and  so  fall  into  the  domain  of  sociological 
study."  4 

What  we  really  have,  according  to  Keller,  is  the  change 
from  habits,  folkways,  into  group-customs  or  mores. 
These  are  selected  only  in  part  on  rational  grounds, 
mainly  on  emotional.  Some  of  them  are  better  than 
others,  the  mores  of  one  group  may  be  much  better  than 
those  of  another.  In  times  of  trial  the  group  with  weak 
mores  either  discovers  its  weakness  or,  in  extreme  cases, 
is  destroyed  because  of  them.  This  revelation  of  weak- 
ness Keller  thinks  has  always  been  one  of  the  chief  services 
of  war. 

A  different  application  of  biological  principles,  real  or 
alleged,  to  social  questions  is  to  be  found  in  a  large 
number  of  writers,  philosophers  and  statesmen  who  are 
advocating  what  they  call  "  social  Darwinism."  Speak- 
ing in  simplest  terms,  it  is  the  application  of  the  law 

*KELLEB,  A.  G.    o.  c.,  pp.  39-41. 


THE  NATURE  OF  PEOGEESS  381 

of  struggle  to  human  relations,  particularly  in  inter- 
national affairs.  The  stronger,  abler  race  will  survive, 
the  weaker  be  destroyed.  You  may  be  sorry  for  the 
weaker  but  it  has  no  claim  to  a  place  on  earth  unless 
it  chances  to  accord  with  your  own  interests.  Military 
necessity  overrides  all  other  considerations. 

The  first  thing  to  attract  our  attention  in  this  philos- 
ophy is  that  it  was  not  held  by  Darwin,  Wallace,  Hux- 
ley and  Kropotkin.  Darwin  believed  in  cooperation,  not 
war.  He  wrote  to  Wallace  that  "  the  struggle  between 
the  races  of  man  depended  entirely  upon  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities."  5  The  ablest  writer  from  this  stand- 
point in  recent  years  has  been  the  Russian,  Novicow,  (to 
use  the  French  form  of  his  name).  Into  the  merits  of 
the  controversy  we  need  not  go.  It  is  sufficient  to  indi- 
cate the  fact  that  some  of  the  ablest  natural  scientists 
disown  the  very  popular  doctrine  of  force  which  political 
scientists  have  claimed  as  one  of  their  cardinal  beliefs. 
The  object  of  man's  struggles,  say  the  former,  should  be 
the  conquest  of  nature,  not  the  overthrow  of  fellow  man. 
In  this  struggle  there  should  be  division  of  labor  and 
not  ruthless  competition.  The  enemies  of  man  are  not 
fellow  men  but  the  forms  of  life  which  live  at  his  expense. 

Whatever  the  final  decision  in  these  matters,  there  are 
certain  dangers  in  the  attempt  to  apply  the  laws  of  one 
science  to  the  phenomena  of  another,  of  which  one  of  the 
best  living  natural  scientists,  Professor  J.  A.  Thomson, 
of  Aberdeen,  has  written: 

"  The  fallacy  of  regarding  sociology  as  no  more  than 
a  recondite  branch  of  biology  is  not  merely  verbal,  imply- 
ing differences  of  opinion  on  the  tedious  question  of  the 
best  definitions  of  these  two  sciences;  it  involves  a  mis- 

5  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin,  p.  271. 


382         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

conception  of  what  human  society  is,  a  misconception 
which  is  discredited  by  the  facts  of  history  and  experi- 
ence. No  one  doubts  that  the  life  of  a  social  group  is 
made  up  of  a  complex  of  activities  of  individual  persons 
—  but  these  are  integrated,  harmonised,  and  regulated  in 
a  manner  as  far  beyond  present  biological  analysis  as  the 
integration,  harmonization  and  regulation  of  the  chemical 
and  physical  processes  in  the  individual  organisms  are 
at  present  beyond  mechanical  analysis.  .  .  . 

"  To  keep  to  the  concept  of  selection  for  a  moment ; 
it  was  applied  to  plants  and  animals,  it  was  illustrated, 
justified  if  not  demonstrated  and  formulated;  and  now 
with  the  imprimatur  of  biology  it  comes  back  to  sociology 
as  a  great  law  of  life.  That  it  is  so  we  take  for  granted, 
but  it  is  surely  evident  that  in  social  affairs,  from  which 
it  emanated  as  a  suggestion  to  biology,  it  must  be  re- 
verified  and  precisely  tested.  ...  In  any  case,  a  formula 
borrowed  from  another  science  and  applied  to  a  new  order 
of  facts  —  even  to  those  in  which  it  first  arose  as  a 
suggestion  —  must  be  rigorously  tested.  Otherwise,  both 
organic  and  social  sciences  resolve  themselves  into  socio- 
morphic  illusions."  6 

Personally,  I  have  no  doubt  that  we  shall  develop  a 
science  of  society.  This  will  involve  the  collection  of 
much  more  and  more  accurate  data  than  we  now  have. 
When  that  time  comes,  we  shall  be  better  able  perhaps 
to  compare  the  relative  importance  of  the  forces  influenc- 
ing society  than  is  now  possible,  for  all  our  explanations 
today  are  but  guesses.  The  significant  thing  is  that  we 
are  coming  to  believe  in  cause  and  effect  in  the  social 
realm  and  to  ask  for  evidence,  rather  than  dogma. 

This  development  of  a  science  of  society  is  quite  cer- 

«  THOMSON,  J.  A.    Heredity,  pp.  510-512. 


THE  NATURE  OF  PROGEESS  383 

tain  to  compel  the  surrender  of  many  hoary  beliefs  and 
prejudices.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  no  more  natural  for 
animals  to  serve  as  food  for  man  than  for  man  to  act 
in  the  same  capacity  for  animals.  Disease  and  death 
are  as  natural  as  life.  Indeed,  a  vague  recognition  of 
this  fact  has  led  to  the  notion  that  nations  like  individuals 
had  their  foreordained  period  of  growth  and  maturity 
to  be  followed  by  decline  and  downfall.  All  that  is  here 
desired  is  to  recognize  that  evolution  and  progress  are 
not  synonymous  terms. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  learned  historian  like 
Mommsen  despaired  of  ever  determining  the  causes  of 
the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  effort  to  ex- 
plain why  the  leadership  of  the  world  has  removed  from 
one  area  to  another,  from  one  group  to  another,  the 
favored  answer  of  the  historian  has  been:  race  superior- 
ity and  moral  decay.  The  leading  races  were  obviously 
superior  races.  Of  this  attitude  Emil  Reich  has  written : 
"  The  most  ingenious  books  have  been  written  endeavor- 
ing to  apply  the  theory  of  race  to  the  explanation  of  the 
rise  of  the  intellect  among  nations.  But  the  racial  theory 
has  been  ridden  to  death.  After  a  long  struggle,  it  is 
now  being  eventually  abandoned  by  its  most  fanatical 
adherents  in  the  ranks  of  modern  historians.  But  the 
average  man  still  pins  his  faith  to  it.  The  ordinary 
Englishman  still  attributes,  and  will  continue  to  attribute, 
the  success  of  his  nation  to  the  predominance  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  stock;  there  is  something  extremely  flattering  to 
national  pride  in  the  notion.  It  also  permits  of  a  rapid 
and  complete  annihilation  of  the  so-called  Latin  races. 
The  Frenchman  is  also  fired  by  a  kindred  admiration  for 
all  that  has  issued  from  the  Gallo-Roman  blood,  a  theory 
which  also  allows  the  equally  rapid  and  complete  dis- 


384         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

posal  of  all  that  is  Teutonic  and  Anglo-Saxon.  We  have 
already  shown  how  absolutely  impossible  and  inapplicable 
such  theories  are  in  the  scientific  study  of  history.  Eace 
is  quite  impossible  of  identification,  and  where  we  can 
to  some  extent  follow  out  the  lines  of  ethnographical 
demarcation,  it  does  not  in  any  way  correspond  with  the 
national  frontier."  7 

Reibmayr  would  modify  the  racial  theory  by  saying; 
that  civilization  is  only  attained  by  a  people  which  has 
remained  isolated  long  enough  to  have  completely  ab- 
sorbed all  the  various  strains  that  may  have  entered  into 
its  makeup,  and  then,  by  keeping  others  out,  has  developed 
along  the  lines  of  its  own  genius.  The  ancient  Israelites 
were  confident  that  they  succeeded  when  they  followed 
the  commands  of  God,  and  moralists  have  not  failed  to 
suggest  the  same  reason  as  regards  other  peoples.  Reich 
would  have  it  that  the  "  initiators  of  great  intellectual 
progress  have  been  border  nations.  Situated  upon  the 
confines  of  some  great  empire,  they  have  also  been,  on 
the  whole,  comparatively  insignificant  nations  on  the 
score  of  numbers.  .  .  .  But  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a 
principle  that  progress  of  intellect  has  always  been 
manifested  in  response  to  some  external  stimulus.  Let 
us  consider  for  a  moment  the  conditions  of  existence  of 
border  nations.  Their  numbers  will  not  permit  them  to 
sustain  a  struggle  of  main  force  against  their  more 
powerful  neighbors;  they  must  seek  for  some  efficient 
weapon  with  which  to  ward  off  the  onslaught  of  their 
outnumbering  foes.  The  only  such  weapon  is  to  be  found 
in  a  superior  intelligence;  directly  intelligence  stands  at 
a  premium  it  begins  to  appear."  8 

T  REICH,  EMIL.     Success  among  Nations,  pp.  116-116. 
« Ibid.,  pp.  116-117. 


THE  NATURE  OF  PROGEESS  385 

Woods,  while  not  stressing  the  differences  between  the 
different  peoples,  believes  that  the  strength  or  weakness 
of  the  ruling  dynasties  largely  explains  the  success  or 
failure  of  the  various  nations.  "  I  have  just  completed 
a  research  .  .  .  covering  the  history  of  fourteen  countries 
of  Europe;  366  reigns  or  regencies  are  included,  and  not 
over  seven  per  cent  can  be  cited  as  exceptions.  In 
ninety-three  per  cent  of  the  cases  a  single  personality  is 
the  cause  of;  not  the  conditions,  but  the  changes  in  the 
conditions  from  one  period  to  another.  The  rise  and 
decline  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  Sweden  and  Turkey,  the 
cumulative  but  spasmodic  growth  of  France,  the  early, 
slow,  but  finally  accelerating  growth  of  Prussia  and 
Russia,  the  evanescent  importance  of  the  Dutch,  the  re- 
tarded development  of  Scotland,  the  comparatively  nega- 
tiveness  of  Austria,  the  unexpanded  state  of  Denmark, 
these  are  all  paralleled  in  the  personalities  of  the 
leaders."  9 

Another  type  of  explanation  lies  in  the  emphasis  put 
upon  external  conditions  of  soil  and  climate  by  the  an- 
thropo-geographers.  If  their  extreme  claims  were  to  be 
accepted  one  could  tell  in  advance  from  the  physical 
background  the  nature  and  form  of  the  state  in  all  her 
activities.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  explanation 
seems  at  times  too  simple  to  be  real. 

Personally,  I  fear  that  we  are  not  yet  in  a  position 
to  determine  the  exact '  role  of  the  various  causes  which 
have  operated  in  the  past,  let  alone  make  predictions  for 
the  future.  Eather,  it  seems  wise  to  me  to  try  to  deter- 
mine what  forces  have  been  at  work  and  what  difficulties 
have  been  encountered  on  the  road  to  civilization.  So 
far  as  I  can  see  the  actual  progress  of  a  people,  up  or 

»  WOODS,  F.  A.,  in  Problems  in  Eugenics,  p.  252  ff. 


386         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

down,  has  turned  upon  the  conditions  surrounding  it  at 
any  given  time.  Even  assuming  native  capacity  which 
there  seems  little  reason  to  question,  there  can  be  little 
or  no  advance  if  the  external  conditions  of  nature  are  too 
severe.  It  is  hard  for  civilized  man  with  all  his  boasted 
superiority  to  suggest  how  the  Eskimo  might  improve  his 
standard  of  living  save  by  trading  with  the  natives  of 
other  climes.  So  far  no  people  in  the  disease-swept 
tropics  has  gone  far  towards  the  creation  of  a  great  nation. 
Even  where  natural  conditions  are  favorable  there  may 
be  little  progress  if  the  wealth  created  is  certain  to  be 
stolen  by  stronger  robber  tribes.  In  either  case  a  stand- 
ard of  relative  idleness  and  non-productivity  may  arise 
and  become  traditional.  On  the  other  hand,  even  if  the 
locality  be  poor  there  is  a  chance  for  development  if 
ideals  of  labor  and  thrift  are  shared  by  the  people.  Thus 
parts  of  New  Jersey  are  becoming  prosperous  because  of 
the  presence  of  Italian  peasants  with  simple  ideals  and 
relatively  low  standards  of  expenditure.  The  important 
thing  is  then  the  combination  of  opportunity  with  ideals. 
Opportunity  stands  in  close  relationship  with  intellectual 
development.  There  is  no  opportunity  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  use  of  metals  when  a  people  does  not  know 
the  ores  or  the  compounds,  no  matter  how  abundant  the 
elements  are. 

In  older  times  when  the  groups  were  less  extensive  and 
less  inclusive  the  personal  virtues  were  strongly  empha- 
sized. When  only  the  individual  or  at  most  his  private 
family  suffered,  drunkenness  was  little  esteemed.  Now, 
with  existing  industrial  organization  it  is  a  matter  of 
concern  to  hundreds  who  never  see  or  know  the  individual 
in  daily  life,  whether  the  engineer  of  the  train  be  drunk 
or  sober.  Drunkenness  takes  on  a  new  guise.  The  point 


387 

is  that  new  conditions  demand  new  standards  of  personal 
conduct.  A  man  may  be  the  embodiment  of  all  the  old 
personal,  homely,  negative  virtues,  a  member  in  good 
standing  of  all  orthodox  institutions,  kind  to  family  and 
friends,  who  nevertheless  is  more  injurious  and  harmful 
to  society  than  many  a  despised  reprobate,  provided  that 
under  present  conditions  he  exploits  child  labor,  under- 
pays his  female  employees,  holds  public  office  as  a  source 
of  personal  revenue  or  misstates  the  truth  in  his  news- 
papers to  conciliate  his  advertisers. 

I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  possible  today  to  establish 
any  definite  tests  of  the  fitness  of  a  people  or  nation  to 
survive.  It  does  seem  possible  to  suggest  some  of  the 
elements  which  must  enter  into  our  estimates  and  I  list 
a  few  without  any  attempt  at  arranging  them  in  any 
special  order  purely  for  purposes  of  illustration. 

Inasmuch  as  the  permanency  of  a  society  turns  in 
large  measure  upon  the  maintaining  of  right  relations  be- 
tween individuals  we  may  say  that  the  first  test  lies  in 
its  choice  of  the  right  virtues  and  right  crimes.  It  is 
entirely  possible  that  the  crimes  selected  may  really  have 
very  little  to  do  with  the  welfare  of  the  people  while 
indifference  is  shown  towards  other  acts  which  are  very 
harmful.  The  New  England  colonies  often  forbade  the 
entertainment  of  a  stranger  from  another  colony  without 
the  providing  of  bonds  or  special  permission  of  the  town 
fathers,  but  permitted  the  owning  of  slaves.  Later  the 
colonies  objected  to  slave-holding,  but  raised  few  ob- 
stacles against  the  carrying  on  of  the  slave-trade  by  its 
citizens,  or  the  manufacture  and  transportation  of  the 
rum  which  was  used  as  purchase  money  in  Africa.  The 
attempt  to  carefully  regulate  the  sale  of  goods  or  the 
behavior  of  people  on  Sunday  may  often  be  accompanied 


388         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

by  an  indifference  as  to  the  condition  of  the  schools  for 
the  Negroes,  let  us  say,  or  the  enforcement  of  compulsory 
education  laws.  Chinese  gambling  joints  are  often  raided 
while  the  open  gambling  in  the  political  clubs  of  the  city 
is  ignored. 

As  von  Ihering  pointed  out  years  ago  there  is  a  direct 
relationship  between  the  general  economic  and  social 
conditions  and  the  crimes  most  severely  punished. 

"  Every  state  punishes  those  crimes  most  severely 
which  threaten  its  own  peculiar  condition  of  existence, 
while  it  allows  a  moderation  to  prevail  in  regard  to  other 
crimes  which,  not  unfrequently,  presents  a  very  striking 
contrast  to  its  severity  as  against  the  former.  A  theoc- 
racy brands  blasphemy  and  idolatry  as  crimes  deserving 
of  death,  while  it  looks  on  a  boundary  violation  as  a 
mere  misdemeanor.  (Mosaic  Law.)  The  agricultural 
state,  on  the  other  hand,  visits  the  latter  with  the  severest 
punishment,  while  it  lets  the  blasphemer  go  with  the 
lightest  punishment.  (Old  Roman  Law.)  The  commer- 
cial state  punishes  most  severely  the  uttering  of  false 
coin;  the  military  state,  insubordination  and  breach  of 
official  duty ;  the  absolute  state,  high  treason ;  the  republic, 
the  striving  after  regal  power;  and  they  all  manifest  a 
severity  in  these  points  which  contrasts  greatly  with  the 
manner  in  which  they  punish  other  crimes.  In  short,  the 
reaction  of  the  feeling  of  legal  right,  both  of  states  and 
individuals,  is  most  violent  when  they  feel  themselves 
threatened  in  the  conditions  of  existence  peculiar  to 
them."  10 

A  second  test  of  society  is  the  protection  it  affords  to 
the  lives  and  bodies  of  its  members.  In  older  times  this 
was  largely  a  question  of  defense  against  external  enemies. 

10  VON  IHEBINO,  R.    Struggle  for  Law,  pp.  45-46. 


THE  NATTJEE  OF  PEOGRESS  389 

In  the  great  nations  of  today  it  is  more  usually  a  question 
of  protection  against  inner  enemies.  In  the  United 
States  there  are  yearly  some  million  and  a  half  deaths 
of  which  experts  say  at  least  one-third  are  unnecessary 
with  present  knowledge.  From  the  social  standpoint  the 
death-rate  is  perhaps  the  least  of  the  evils  involved.  For 
every  death  there  are  many  cases  of  sickness  and  pre- 
ceding most  deaths  is  a  period  of  illness.  The  resulting 
burden  on  the  wage-earner  and  the  community  is  terrific. 
Preventable  sickness  and  death  involve  the  upset  of  family 
life,  the  dropping  out  of  school  of  many  children,  the 
neglect  of  others  because  the  surviving  members  have  to 
go  to  work,  all  of  which  results  in  the  formation  of  shift- 
less and  anti-social  habits  whose  final  cost* cannot  be 
estimated. 

A  third  test  is  in  the  training  of  the  children  that  they 
may  be  prepared  to  maintain  the  society  when  they  are 
grown.  If  proper  facilities  are  not  provided,  if  the 
training  is  not  compulsory  and  not  thorough,  no  one  can 
expect  steady  social  advance  or  even  the  maintenance  of 
present  standards.  Children  of  primitive  societies  easily 
saw  the  reasons  for  the  standards  adopted  since  most  of 
them  turned  on  methods  of  obtaining  a  livelihood.  In 
civilized  communities  the  sense  of  relationship  is  lost  and 
the  child  must  accept  the  verdict  of  adults  that  the  things 
taught  will  be  found  of  ultimate  value.  Where  this  is 
not  true  or  where  it  is  not  accepted  the  educational  pro- 
gram is  defective  to  say  the  least. 

A  fourth  test  lies  in  the  elimination  of  the  unfit.  The 
meager  surplus  of  primitive  man  often  left  him  no  alter- 
native but  the  destruction  of  those  no  longer  able  to  do 
their  share,  whether  as  a  result  of  sickness,  accident,  or 
design.  Civilized  man,  who  has  come  after  ages  of 


390         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

struggle  to  the  acceptance  of  a  belief  in  the  sacredness 
of  human  life,  may  well  hesitate  to  jeopardize  that  ideal 
by  the  ruthless  sacrifice  of  weaklings.  Furthermore, 
such  a  program  would  turn  against  society  many  of  the 
friends  and  relatives  of  those  to  be  sacrificed.  Above  all 
else  it  is  no  longer  necessary,  for  now  our  surplus  is  great 
enough  so  that  their  lives  can  be  spared  without  undue 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  rest.  Moreover  we  may  per- 
haps learn  from  our  efforts  to  care  for  the  afflicted  and 
to  cure  them,  how  to  avoid  certain  of  the  troubles  by  a 
change  of  habits  and  to  deal  with  the  normal  to  greater 
advantage;  and  may  develop  our  altruistic  instincts  as 
well.  This  does  not  mean  that  we  should  tolerate  the 
unfit  in  the  ranks  of  parents,  nor  in  the  ranks  of  labor, 
thus  reducing  our  standard  and  the  speed  of  the  group, 
nor  in  the  ordinary  social  groups  where  their  presence 
would  give  offense.  Rather  it  implies  that  we  devise  for 
each  type  some  suitable  retreat  where  they  may  be  well 
cared  for  at  moderate  cost.  The  great  truth  we  must 
learn  is  that  they  must  be  eliminated  from  ordinary  pur- 
suits of  everyday  life  or  they  will  threaten  our  very 
existence. 

The  fifth  and  perhaps  the  crucial  test  concerns  the 
power  of  readjusting  institutions  and  programs  to  meet 
changing  conditions  of  life.  On  all  sides  one  can  see 
the  survival  of  old  standards,  old  methods,  old  ideals, 
which  seem  to  have  little  to  do  with  present  conditions 
of  life.  For  illustration,  our  public  school  system  runs 
merrily  on,  every  train  on  the  road  being  labeled  "  This 
way  to  the  College,"  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  nearly 
97  per  cent  of  the  trains  are  empty  when  the  high  school 
station  is  passed.  We  teach  the  children  the  glories  of 
the  ancestors  who  fought  for  freedom  from  Great  Britain 


THE  NATUBE  OF  PEOGEESS  391 

and  tell  them  also  of  the  duty  we  owe  to  the  poor 
"  Filipino." 

It  is  right  at  this  point  that  belief  and  knowledge, 
emotion  and  intellect,  have  always  had  their  fiercest 
fights.  One  need  not  be  surprised  at  this.  Here  is  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  The  defenders  of  the  old  order 
make  their  last  stand,  sincere  in  their  belief  that  the 
suggested  change  spells  disaster;  convinced,  and  not 
always  without  reason,  that  the  protagonists  of  the  new 
order  do  not  know  what  the  results  thereof  will  be. 

The  poet  may  have  the  faith  and  inspiration  to  sing: 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfills  himself  in  various  ways 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 

But  the  average  man  is  skeptical  and  hesitates  about  leav- 
ing this  world  even  when  convinced  that  heaven  is  ready 
for  him  just  across  the  river. 

The  truth  is  then  that  in  every  society  there  is  almost 
certain  to  come  a  period  of  crystallization  of  institutions 
when  they  cease  to  meet  the  real,  vital  needs  of  the  people. 
This  result  may  come  from  many  causes.  Inherited 
wealth  may  remove  the  necessity  of  securing  constant 
support  from  year  to  year  from  those  whom  they  serve. 
Under  such  conditions  the  managers  become  more  and 
more  indifferent  to  popular  desires  and  are  likely  to  be 
more  interested  in  maintaining  traditional  programs  than 
in  meeting  new  issues.  Again  the  management  may  fall 
into  limited  groups  and  descend  generation  after  genera- 
tion as  a  closed  corporation.  Regardless  of  the  intentions 
of  the  managers,  there  is  little  likelihood  that  they  will 
know  or  understand  changed  conditions  and  hence  will 
not  provide  for  them.  Again,  men  may  be  kept  in  con- 


392         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

trol  long  after  the  active  constructive  period  of  their  lives 
has  passed,  and  only  when  the  test  comes  are  their  short- 
comings revealed.  The  wholesale  replacement  of  generals 
in  the  French  army  after  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war 
is  a  case  in  point.  Most  to  be  feared  of  all  dangers 'is 
perhaps  the  change  of  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  people 
who  come  to  revere  an  institution  to  such  an  extent  that 
it  is  regarded  as  an  end  in  itself.  Blind  devotion  in- 
evitably bodes  disaster  which  may  come  in  two  ways. 
There  may  be  such  power  manifested  by  the  institution 
that  all  efforts  to  remodel  it  or  to  escape  its  penalties 
may  be  vain.  Its  power  remains  but  its  source  of  strength 
is  destroyed.  Sooner  or  later  an  explosion  from  within 
results  or  an  outside  invader  reveals  the  essential  rotten- 
ness of  the  situation.  A  vast  nation  of  enormous  inherent 
power  must  bow  to  the  wishes  of  a  handful  of  Japanese 
or  lease  territory  to  Germany  or  to  England  because  her 
institutions  were  devised  to  cope  with  the  world  of  ages 
gone.  Until  the  outside  pressure  comes  the  essential 
weakness  may  not  be  apparent,  and  a  deadly  caste  system 
may  arise  as  in  India,  where  for  ages  things  go  on  as 
they  did  in  older  days.  Decay  may  be  checked  or  con- 
cealed but  so  are  progress  and  development.  That  which 
was  good  has  become  the  enemy  of  the  better. 

The  truth  is  that  man  is  likely  to  forget  that  he  livee 
in  a  world  of  change.  No  matter  how  satisfied  he  is 
with  present  conditions  or  with  present  forms  of  insti- 
tutions he  must  prepare  for  the  inevitable.  Assume  if 
you  please  that  a  given  people  has  reached  an  ideal  state 
and  that  justice  and  satisfaction  are  achieved.  Does  not 
the  history  of  the  world  show  that  sooner  or  later  an 
outside  people,  ambitious  and  energetic,  willing  to  fight 
and  sacrifice,  are  likely  to  enter  this  fool's  paradise  and 


THE  NATUEE  OF  PEOGEESS  393 

lay  it  to  waste  ?  The  rest  of  the  world  has  to  be  taken 
into  account  when  we  shape  our  policies  whether  we  like 
it  or  not.  We  have  passed  the  time  when  we  think  that 
might  alone  makes  right,  but  we  have  not  yet  fully 
learned  that  right  must  be  supported  by  might  if  it  is 
to  be  maintained.  International  law  will  continue  to  be 
a  farce  until  there  are  nations  willing  to  support  it  by 
all  the  might  at  their  command. 

An  added  danger  comes  from  the  temptation  to  believe 
that  the  loud  shouting  of  old  watch-words  and  shibboleths 
is  a  guarantee  of  their  continued  vitality  and  effectiveness. 
In  America  we  talk  much  of  equality  before  the  law  and 
of  justice,  and  forget  that  the  incoming  immigrant  hordes 
get  their  conceptions  of  justice  from  actual  contact  with 
the  minor  courts  and  are  often  impressed  with  anything 
but  justice.  Our  political  leaders  wave  the  flag  and 
shout  democracy  as  loudly  as  any  man  on  the  street,  but 
are  often  much  more  interested  in  their  profits  than  in 
the  welfare  of  the  community. 

Out  of  all  the  vast  turmoil  of  conflicting  interests,  of 
the  mists  of  ignorance  and  superstition  and  the  test  tube 
of  the  scientist,  must  be  evolved  not  merely  the  jnaterial 
basis  o^  our  life,  but  also  the  customs  and  policies  which 
are  to  meet  present  needs  and  help  us  prepare  for  needs 
yet  to  be.  When  one  thinks  of  the  opportunities  for 
mistakes,  of  the  little  learning  of  the  many,  and  the  age- 
long distrust  of  those  who  do  know,  of  the  difficulty  of 
distinguishing  the  last  from  those  who  claim  to  know  but 
do  not,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  actual  societies  have 
had  to  "  worry  along  "  as  best  they  could  until  the  test- 
ing time  came.  Then  perhaps  they  find  the  right  leader 
and  adopt  the  right  policy  in  time,  perhaps  they  fail  and 
yield  place  to  some  other  group.  Both  have  happened  in 


394         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  SOCIETY 

the  past,  both  are  happening  before  our  very  eyes.  The 
future  belongs  to  those  groups  which  make  the  right 
choices.  Today  there  is  little  knowledge  kept  hidden 
within  a  given  country.  Today  there  is  less  chance  than 
ever  for  the  maintenance  of  a  stone  wall  of  exclusion. 
The  world  is  becoming  one  and  the  peoples  that  refuse 
to  recognize  this  fact  and  persist  in  maintaining  lower 
standards  are  but  writing  their  own  death  notices,  no 
matter  how  long  the  funeral  is  postponed. 

The  success  or  failure  of  a  civilization  then  cannot  be 
accounted  for  in  terms  of  race  or  environment  alone.  It 
is  far  too  complex  for  that.  Bather  must  we  account  for 
it  in  terms  of  adjustment  between  man's  institutions  and 
his  environment  which  is  in  part  physical,  in  part  social. 
It  is  easier  to  maintain  the  lower  levels  of  savagery  and 
barbarism  than  the  higher  levels  of  civilization.  This  is 
true  regardless  of  the  stock  of  humans.  In  the  simpler 
stages  there  are  fewer  adjustments  to  be  made  and  the 
individuals  stand  or  fall  as  individuals.  In  the  higher 
stages  there  are  many  actors  to  be  harmonized.  Group 
interests  often  conflict  with  national.  It  is  more  difficult 
to  know  the  facts,  it  is  vastly  more  difficult  to  secure  that 
united  attitude  which  makes  possible  the  use  of  known 
facts.  That  which  makes  it  possible  to  attain  civilization 
is  that  the  basic  factors  are  after  all  relatively  few  and 
constant.  That  which  has  made  it  so  hard  to  preserve 
a  culture  once  gotten  must  be  the  introduction  of  so  many 
factors,  relatively  small  in  themselves,  but  which  collec- 
tively are  so  important;  particularly  when  the  tendency 
of  all  institutions  is  to  lose  their  early  adaptability  and 
crystallize. 

Ever  and  anon  there  arises  a  man,  or  a  school  of  men, 
who  have  some  one  remedy  for  social  evils  which  adopted 


THE  NATURE  OF  PROGRESS  395 

will  lead  to  absolute  peace  and  prosperity.  If  eternal 
change  is  the  order  of  nature,  there  can  be  no  such  solu- 
tion of  our  difficulties.  Adopt  democracy  and  there  are 
left  plenty  of  political  problems,  some  of  them  unsus- 
pected before.  Adopt  anarchy,  socialism,  single-tax  or 
any  other  of  the  compounds  advocated  today  and  the 
result  will  only  be  a  new  set  of  problems  for  the  future 
to  solve  even  assuming  that  the  immediate  results  are 
good.  This  merely  means  that  there  are  no  final  solutions 
for  social  ills.  We  must  always  be  prepared  to  modify 
our  programs  in  the  light  of  experience  and  in  accordance 
with  the  end  we  seek  to  accomplish. 

The  road  from  savagery  to  present  civilization  has  been 
long,  needlessly  long,  but  the  road  to  that  civilization 
which  we  see  as  possible  in  the  future  is  still  longer. 
There  is  no  reason  for  pessimism.  Man  can  do  much 
greater  things  than  he  has  done  if  he  will  and  if  he  is 
ready  to  pay  the  necessary  costs  of  greater  research  and 
greater  training,  both  in  knowledge  of  fact  and  of  pur- 
pose; provided  always  that  he  keeps  faith  in  human 
nature  and  the  possibility  of  human  achievement  which 
after  all  is  the  essence  of  religion. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOB  READING 

BAGEHOT,  W.    Physics  and  Politics.    1877. 
BOAS,  F.    The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man.    1911. 
BRISTOL,  L.  W.     Social  Adaptation.    1915. 
CHAMBERLAIN,  H.  S.    The  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury.   1913. 

CONN,  H.  W.     Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution.    1914. 
GIDDINGS,  F.  H.    Principles  of  Sociology.    1896. 
GUMPLOVICZ,  L.    Der  Rassenkampf.    1883. 
HALL,  A.  C.    Crime  and  Social  Progress.    1901. 
HAYCRAFT,  J.  B.    Darwinism  and  Race  Progress.    1895. 
HAYES,  E.  C.    Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology.    1915. 


396         THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OP  SOCIETY 

VON  IHERING,  E.    The  Evolution  of  the  Aryan  (English  Trans- 
lation).   1897. 

NASMYTH,    G.    Social   Progress    and   the   Darwinian    Theory. 
1916. 

Novicow,  J.    La  Critique  du  Darwinisme  Social.    1910. 

PARMELEE,  M.    Poverty  and  Social  Progress.    1916. 

PATTEN,  S.  N.    The  New  Basis  of  Civilization.    1905. 

REICH,  EMIL.    Success  among  Nations.    1904. 

RITCHIE,  D.  G.    Darwinism  and  Politics.    1891. 

Ross,  E.  A.    Social  Control.    1901. 

SCHAEFFLE,   A.    Das  Bau  und  Leben  des  Sozialen  Koerpers 
(2nd  Ed.).    1896. 

SPENCER,  H.    Principles  of  Sociology  (3d  Ed.).    1885. 

TARDE,  G.    Laws  of  Imitation  (English  Translation).     1903. 

WALLACE,    A.    R.     Social   Environment   and   Moral   Progress. 
1913. 

WARD,  L.  F.    Pure  Sociology.    1903. 
"  Applied  Sociology.    1906. 


INDEX 


Ability,  inheritance  of,  255-266 

Abortion,  340 

Acetylene  light,  109 

Acquired  characters,  inherited  ? 
215-221;  223-225 

Activity,  determined  by  struc- 
ture, 27 

Adaptation,  25 

Agriculture,  among  primitive 
people,  103;  intensive,  in  U. 
S.,  103 ;  tools  used  in,  107 

Air,  composition,  7;  impurities 
in,  20 

Albinos,  238 

Alcohol,  effects  of,  on  human 
races,  344 ;  effects  of,  on  guinea 
pigs,  221-223;  influence  on  re- 
production, 221 

Altitude,  results  from  sudden 
changes  of,  35 

Aluminum,  109 ;   first  produced,  4 

Ameba,  182,  183 

Ammon,    O.,    284-285 

Anesthetics,  130 

Angora  kittens,  dominant  and 
recessive  characteristics  shown 
in,  205 

Aniline  dyes,  106,  110,  193 

Animals,  aquatic,  food  relations 
of,  59 ;  character  of,  determined 
by  temperature,  15;  communi- 
ties, 65;  crossing,  124;  dan- 
gers of  man's  careless  discrim- 
ination among,  83;  domestic, 
origin  of,  117;  domestic,  value 
to  man,  126;  habitat  of,  se- 
lected by  "trial  and  error," 
27;  harm  done  to  crops  by, 
79;  power  of  readaptation,  47 


397 


Anthrax,  128 

Ants,  interrelations  of,  104 

Apes,  anthropoid,  four  groups, 
184 

Argentina,  relation  between  an- 
nual rainfall  and  number  of 
sheep,  18;  wheat  in,  19 

Argentine  ant,  92 

Armadillo,  209 

Asia,  drying  up  of,  364 

Asiamerican,  classified,  277 

Asiatic  cholera,  133 

Asphalt,  106 

Ass,  122 

Atomic  theory,  2 

Australia,  birth  and  death  rates, 
333;  relation  between  annual 
rainfall  and  number  of  sheep, 
18;  wheat  in,  19 

Australoid,  classified,  277 

Azoic  age,  192 

Bacteria,  53;   discovery  of,  128 

Bailey,  L.  H.,  19 

Balance  of  nature,  72 

Barometric  pressure,  35 

Bateson,  W.,  194,  213,  225,  227 

Bees,   125 

Beet,  sugar,  214 

Belief  and  knowledge,  distinc- 
tion between,  355 

Beliefs  and  ideals,  change  in, 
with  progress,  375 

Bertillon,  J.,  335 

Binet  tests,  242 

Biological  survey,  25 

Biometrics,   228 

Birds,  census  of,  93;  extinct,  86; 
food  supply,  77;  influence  of 


398 


INDEX 


incoming  white  man  on,  84; 
insect  life  controlled  by,  87; 
man's  ruthless  destruction  of, 
86;  migratory,  government 
control  of,  95?  predacious,  80; 
in  U.  S.,  85;  value  as  food,  119 

Birth  rate,  according  to  degree 
of  wealth,  335 ;  checked  by  race 
crossing,  296;  difference  in 
number  of  boys  and  girls,  313; 
decrease  in,  331-334;  decrease 
in,  in  America,  among  natives 
and  immigrants,  335-336;  de- 
crease in,  in  France,  334;  fac- 
tors affecting,  direct,  340; 
factors  affecting,  indirect,  337- 
340 

Boas,   F.,   33,   287-289,  375 

Bob-white,  77 

Bourbons  in  Spain,  260 

Brain,  human,  239;  weight,  290 

Brenner  Pass,  30 

Bubonic  plague,  133 

Buenos  Aires,  climatic  condi- 
tions, 35 

California,  big  trees  in,  44 

Camel,  122 

Canada,  birth  and  death  rates, 
334 

Cancer,   141 

Candles,  104 

Carbohydrates,  10 

Carbolic  acid,  130 

Carbon,  compounds,  9;  impor- 
tance of,  to  living  organisms,  9 

Carboniferous  era,  105 

Castle,  W.  E.,  210,  221 

Cat,  domestic,  121 

Caterpillars,  181 

Cattell,  J.  McK.,  341-342 

Cattle,  122;  dairy,  127 

Caucasian,  classified,  277 

Celibacy,  338 

Cell,  cytoplasm,  197;  definition 
of,  192;  discovery,  192;  divi- 
sion, in  forming  life,  194;  re- 


production from  single,  193; 
sperm,  195,  196;  see  also  Germ 
cells 

Cenozoic  age,  184 

Central  Asia,  44 

Cephalic  index,  among  Ameri- 
cans, 282;  among  Europeans, 
283;  can  cephalic  index 
change?  287-288;  described, 
282;  social  significance  consid- 
ered, 286,  287 

Chapin,  F.  S.,  181,  306-309 

Characters,  dominant  and  reces- 
sive, 200;  sex-linked,  209 

Chickens,  barred-rock,  breeding 
of,  209;  color  inheritance,  202, 
origin,  119;  varieties  of,  124 

Child,  influence  of  social  condi- 
tions on,  331 

Child-bearing,  among  civilized 
women,  338 

Children,  number  of,  337 

Chloroform,  130 

Chromosomes,  as  determiners  of 
heredity,  204;  description  of, 
193;  human,  208;  number  of, 
in  animals  and  in  man,  194 

Cinchona  tree,  112 

Civilization,  advance  of,  374; 
decrease  in  amount  of  land  re- 
quired, 102;  distinct  elements, 
365;  material  basis,  101;  suc- 
cess of,  394 

Climate,  distribution  of  human 
energy  on  basis  of,  40;  psy- 
chical effects,  41 

Clodd,  E.,  154,  158,  168,  172, 
174 

Clothing,  chief  value  of,  8,  359 

Coal,  13;   forms,  105 

Coffee  industry  in  Ceylon,  146 

Cold  storage,  116 

Color,  of  hair  and  eyes,  280 

Colorado  beetle,  92 

Coloration,  protective,  182 

Color-blindness,  211 

Conception,  prevention  of,  341 


INDEX 


399 


Conduct,  influence  of  seasons  on, 
38 

Conklin,  E.  G.,  196,  197 

Conservative,  the,  370 

Co-operation,  between  different 
parts  of  body,  6;  of  bird  life, 
67;  of  plants  and  animals  in 
producing  and  maintaining 
life,  55 

Copernican  theory,  1 

Cortex,  human  cerebral,  239 

Cotton,  115 

Crampton,  H.  E.,  184 

Creation,  difficulty  over,  in 
Reformation,  163 

Crimes,  388 

Crop  zones  in  America,  23 

Crops,  damage  to,  72 

Currents,  16;  air,  17 

Cytology,   191 

Darbishire,  A.  D.,  206 

Darwin,  C.,  65,  171;  ideas  of, 
177  ff.,  381 

Darwin,  E.,  167 

Date  palm,  61 

Davenport,  C.  B.,  181,  252 

Deaf-mutism,   237 

Deafness,  237 

Death-rate,  gradual  reduction, 
147;  of  women  at  childbirth, 
130;  statistics  of  various 
countries,  334 

De  Candolle,  A.,  Ill,  113 

Defects,    mental,    inherited,    254 

Degenerate  families,  266 

De  Vries,  H.,   198 

Dexter,  E.  G.,  35,  36,  37 

Diphtheria,  140 

Discoveries,  by  early  man,  99 

Disease,  among  plants,  146; 
hereditary,  influence  on  so- 
ciety, 340;  losses  in  live  stock 
from,  in  U.  S.,  144;  preven- 
tion of,  131 

Diseases,  zymotic,  1291 

Diseases  and  accidents,  influence 


of,  on  society  and  population, 

339 
Divorce,  influence  of,  on  society 

and  population,  339 
Dog,  120 

Domestic  animals,  119 
Dorland,  W.  A.  N.,  263 
Drummond,  H.,  61,  343 
Drysdale,  C.  V.,  332-334 
Dust,  influence  of,  26 
Dwarfs,  achondroplasic  and  ateli- 

otic  types,  236 

Earth,  changes  in  physical  con- 
tour, 43;  composition,  2;  ele- 
ments in  surface,  3 

Earthworms,  55 

Education,  compulsory  general, 
242;  Binet  system,  242 

Electricity,  109 

Electrolysis,  110 

Elements,  physical,  2 

Ellis,  H.,  316-322,  325,  326,  327, 
330 

Embryo,  human,  185 

Empedocles,  150 

Engines,  108 

England,  birth,  death  and  mar- 
riage rates,  332;  population 
per  square  mile,  29 

English  sparrow,  90 

Environment,  influence  on  man's 
progress,  274 

Epilepsy,  253 

Ether,  130 

Eugenics,  negative,  267,  268; 
positive,  269 

Europe,  central,  agricultural 
lands,  103;  heredity  in  royal 
families  of,  258 

European  starling,  90 

Evening  primrose,  198 

Evolution,  177;  evidence  from 
life  of  individual,  185;  his- 
torical evidence  of,  181;  phys- 
ical, Drummond's  idea,  343; 
theological  opposition  to,  172 


400 


Eye,  human,  color  of,  212,  280 

Farabee,  W.  C.,  235 

Feeble-minded,  243 

Feeble-mindedness,  248-252 

Fertilization,  197;  of  flowers,  by 
insects,  60 

Finot,  J.,  286,  287,  289 

Fire  salamander,  223 

Fish,  183;  blind,  in  Mammoth 
Cave,  26;  effects  of  tempera- 
ture on,  23;  stratification,  in 
Lake  Michigan,  26 

Fisher,  A.  K.,  80-81 

Fitness  of  environment,  5 

Flies,  fruit,  sex-linked  charac- 
ters in,  209 

Food,  359;  three  great  classes, 
10 

"Four  o'clock,"  experiments  on, 
201 

Fourteenth  Amendment,  366 

Fowlers,  the,  255 

France,  birth  and  death  rates, 
333 

Fraser,  W.  J.,  127 

Galton,  Francis,  228,  229,  266, 
271,  337 

Genius,  common  or  rare?  270; 
inheritance  of,  258;  and  in- 
sanity, 263 

Geographic  conditions,  influence 
of,  on  economic  and  social  de- 
velopment, 31 

Germ  cells,  193;  division,  195; 
human,  266 

Germany,  birth  and  death  rates, 
333 

Giddings,  F.  H.,  306-309,  369 

Gilbert  Islands,  density  of  popu- 
lation, 31 

Glacial  epochs,  43 

Glands,  ductless,  6;  pituitary,  6; 
suprarenals,  6;  thyroid,  6 

Goat,  123 

Goddard,  H.  H.,  245-249,  251 


Gonorrhea,  340 

Gorgas,  W.  C.,  137,  138 

Gould,  B.  A.,  297-298 

Grasshoppers,  93 

Great    Britain,    population    per 

square  mile,  29 
Guinea-pigs,     color     inheritance, 

201,  204;  experiments  on,  220 
Gulf  Stream,  17 
Guyer,  M.  F.,  194,  211,  236,  253 


Hair,  color  of,  212,  280 
Hall  of  Fame,  N.  Y<  C.,  261 
Hands,  abnormal,    ( brachydacty- 

lic,  polydactylic,  syndactylic ) , 

234 

Hann,  J.,  14,  16,  18,  19,  20,  36 
Hastings,  W.  W.,  316-317 
Hellpach,  W.,  38 
Helium,  3 

Hemophilia,  211,  237,  238 
Henderson,  L.  J.,  10 
Hendrick,  B.  J.,  134 
Herbert,  S.,  229 
Heredity,    in    royal    families    of 

Europe,  258,  260;   meaning  of 

•word,  230 
Herter,  C.  A.,  56 
Hessian  fly,  92 
Hibernating  animals,  47 
Hill,  J.  A.,  336 
Hoffman,  F.  L.,  298 
Holland,  birth  and  death  rates, 

333 
Hollingworth,  Mrs.   L.   S.,   325- 

326 
Hormones,  rOle  in  body  growth, 

315 

Hornaday,  W.  T.,  77,  85,  90,  91 
Horse,  123 
Hothouses,  116 
Hunt,  S.  B.,  297 
Huntington,   E.,   36,   39,  41,   44, 

45,  49 

Huntington's  chorea,  239 
Hypotrichosis,  238 


INDEX 


401 


Ichthyosis,  211 

Ihering,  R.  von,  388 

Imbecile,  243 

Immigrants,  influence  of  new  en- 
vironment on,  33 

Immigration,  effect  of,  on  birth 
rate,  339 

Importation  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals, 89 

Indians,  Aymara,  32;  Quichua, 
32 

Industry,  modern,  effects  on  so- 
ciety and  population,  347,  350 

Infancy,  increased  length,  337; 
period,  in  man  as  compared  to 
animals,  357 

Inheritance,  blended,  207;  neu- 
rotic, 252;  sex-limited,  210; 
statistical  laws,  228 

Insanity,  causes  of,  252;  forms 
of,  253;  and  genius,  263 

Insect  pests,  aphis,  74;  boll 
weevil,  73;  codling  moth,  74; 
corn-root  worm,  74;  damage 
done  to  U.  S.  crops  in  1904,  72 ; 
gypsy  moth,  89;  Hessian  fly, 
74;  San  Jose  scale,  89 

Insects,  abundance  of,  in  wet 
seasons,  22;  attacking  domes- 
tic animals  in  U.  S.,  144 ;  serv- 
ices in  plant  fertilization,  60; 
social  life  of,  62 ;  value  to  man, 
124 

Institutions,  crystallization  of, 
391;  organized  to  meet  human 
needs,  362 

Interrelations,  between  highest 
and  lowest  forms  of  life,  38 

Intestines,  flora  of,  56 

Inventions,  great  changes  pro- 
duced by  modern,  367;  influ- 
ence on  man,  101;  of  primitive 
man,  98;  physical  and  social 
effects,  369;  suggested  by  ani- 
mals, 100 

Iowa,  birds  in,  78 

Iron,  107 


Ishmaelites,  266 

Italian,    change    of    head    form, 

288 

Japanese,  101 

Java,  density  of  population,  31 
Jew,  change  of  head  form,  288 
Johnston,  Sir  H.  H.,  277-278, 

292,  299 
Jukes,  The,  266 

Kallikak  Family,  245,  266 
Kammerer,  P.,  223-224 
Keen,  W.  W.,  131,  140 
Keller,  A.  G.,  379,  380 
Keller,  C.,  120,  121 
Kellogg,  V.  L.,  177,  179 
Kirkland,  A.  H.,  83 
Koch,  R.,  128 
Kropotkin,   65-69 
Kuczynski,  R.,  335 

Lake  Michigan,  forms  of  life  in, 

57;  temperature,  16 
Lamarck,  168;  "use  and  disuse  " 

theory,  217 

Lapouge,  G.  V.,  296-297 
Lawton,  L.,  300-301 
Lehr's  Genealogy,  271 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  335 
Life,    dangerous    types    of,    84 ; 

distribution  of,  6;  relation  of, 

to  matter,  5;  stratification  of, 

in  ocean  and  lake,  26 
Light,  its  control  of  growth,  14; 

in  bodies  of  water,  26 
Lighting,    by    candle,     104;     by 

coal-gas,  104;  by  electric  light, 

104;  by  kerosene,  104 
Linnaeus,  164,  165,  303 
Lipman,  J.  G.,  54 
London,  17 

Longevity,  heredity  of,  254 
Lydston,  G.  F.,  265 

Machine     power,      development, 
110 


402 


INDEX 


Malaria,  21,  129 

Malnutrition,  250 

Mammals,  183 

Man,  early  inventions,  98;  early 
life  and  conditions,  353;  four 
characteristics,  Which  give  him 
supreme  place,  184;  his  de- 
struction of  plant  and  animal 
life,  92;  his  progress,  as  in- 
fluenced by  environment,  274; 
influenced  by  physical  world, 
28 ;  inherited  characteristics, 
211;  part  of  animal  kingdom, 
177;  primitive,  98,  372;  time 
on  earth,  189;  types  of  culture, 
100 

Marlatt,  C.  L.,  75 

Marriage,  necessity  for  care  in 
selection  in,  269;  prohibition, 
to  stop  reproduction  of  unfit, 
267 

Marriage  rate,  in  England  and 
Wales,  332 

Marsh  Island,  95 

Martha's  Vineyard,  238 

Mason,  O.  T.,  99 

Matches,  invention  of,  98 

Maturity  of  Indian  boy  as  com- 
pared to  that  of  American,  357 

Mayo,  E.,  133,  138 

McClung,  C.  E.,  208 

McCoy,  G.  W.,  134 

Mendel,  G.,  199,  200,  202 

Mendelian  phenomena,  200  ff;  in 
men,  211,  234 

Merriam,  C.  H.,  24 

Mesozoic  age,  183 

Metabolism,  10 

Metals,  discovery  of,  106 

Mice,  damage  done  to  crops  by, 
79 

Microscope,  128 

Migration,  of  man,  28 

Mitosis,  195,  196 

Moebius,  P.  J.,  320 

Moisture,  in  relation  to  life,  21 

Moore,  B.,  9,  48 


Moore,  E.  C.,  181 

Morgan,  T.  H.,  197,  U3 

Mongolian,  classified   277 

Mongoose,  91 

Morality,     different     standards, 

356 

Morons,  244,  251 
Moth,    brown-tailed,    90;    gypsy, 

89 

Multiple  sclerosis,  211 
Musical  ability  in  families,  256 
Muskrats,  92 
Mutation,  198,  213 
Mutual  aid,  65 

Nature,  man's  control  of,  97 
Neanderthal  type  of  skull,  188 
Near-sightedness,  211 
Negro,  34;  adaptation  to  tropics, 

291;     classified,     277;     racial 

purity,  278 

Negro  slaves  in  South,  31 
Neurotic  inheritance,  252 
New  England  States,  occupation 

in,  31 
New   Zealand,    birth    and    death 

rates  in,  333 
Night-blindness,  211 
Nitrogen,  importance  of,  in  soils, 

12 

Normal-minded  man,  241 
Novicow,  J.,  295 
Nuts,  value  of,  114 

Occupations,  of  men,  31 

Offspring,  and  training  of  par- 
ents, 218 

O'Malley,  A.,  337 

Organisms,  as  machines,  6 

Osborn,  22,  152,  164,  166,  165), 
171 

Ovum,  196 

Oxygen,  discovery  of,  2;  sources, 
25 

Paleozoic  age,  183 


IXDEX 


403 


Palm  trees,  fertilization  of,  61 

Parasites,  6  ,  64 

Parker,  G.    L,  240,  315 

Parthenoge1  jsis,  198 

Passenger  i/,geon|  86 

Passes,  importance  of,  30 

Pasteur  Institute,  143,  145 

Pearson,  Karl,  211-212,  228,  236- 
238;  study  of  school  children 
in  Great  Britain,  257,  258 

Peaa,  Mendel's  experiment  on, 
200,  202 

Petroleum,  13,  106 

Philosophy,  human,  origin  of, 
354 

Phylloxera,  92 

Physical  characters,  determined 
by  environment,  33 

Physical  effects  of  temperature, 
32,  of  earth,  41 

Physical  environment,  change  of, 
43 

Physical  world,  influences  of,  on 
man,  28 

Physiological  effects  of  tempera- 
ture, 35 

Plants,  benefit  of,  to  man,  53; 
chemical  elements  in,  52; 
dangers  of  careless  discrimi- 
nation between,  83 ;  flowering, 
118;  imported,  and  native  of 
U.  S.,  113;  leguminous,  13; 
mechanical  effects  produced  by, 
51;  origin  of  cultivated,  112; 
perfected  by  crossing,  114; 
protection  of,  53 

Ploss,  H.,  323,  327-328 

Pneumonia,  141 

Polydactylism,  236 

Population,  contrasted  in  vari- 
ous states,  29;  density  of 
world's,  28;  influences  of  so- 
ciety on,  33 

Primates,  184 

Primitive  man,  discoveries  of, 
186;  variation  from  present 
man,  188 


Private  property,  inheritance  of, 
349;  origin  of,  360 

Progress,  and  conditions  of  life, 
385;  and  survival  of  old  be- 
liefs and  superstitions,  363 

Progressive  atrophy  of  the  optic 
nerve,  211 

Property  rights  and  personal 
rights,  361 

Proteins,  10 

Protestant  Reformation,  157 

Protozoa,  182 

Public  Health  Service,  143 

Punnett,  R.  C.,  215 

Pyorrhea,  129 


Rabbit,  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  91 

Race,  crossing  of:  arguments  for 
and  against,  294,  302 ;  conclu- 
sions, 301,  302;  discussed, 
294;  in  Africa,  298-299;  in 
Europe,  285,  287,  293;  in  gen- 
eral, 299;  Japanese  and  Eu- 
ropeans, 300-301 ;  lowers  birth 
rate,  296,  297;  Mulatto  in 
Civil  War,  297-298 

Race,  human,  classification  of: 
Blumenbach,  304;  on  color 
basis,  280;  distribution,  28; 
Giddings,  306-309;  Huxley, 
305;  Johnston,  277-279;  Lin- 
naeus, 303;  Mueller,  F.,  305; 
St.  Hilaire,  305 

Race,  meaning  of  term,  278 

Race  differences:  of  body,  281- 
282;  color,  279-280;  cubic 
contents,  289-290;  facial  an- 
gles, 289;  hair,  shape  and 
distribution,  281;  resistance 
to  disease,  290-291;  skull, 
282;  stature,  281 

Race  superiority  or  inferiority: 
Ammon's  claim  for  the  Ger- 
mans, 284-285 ;  claims  of 
superiority  of  long  heads, 


404 


IXDEX 


285-286;  conclusion,  291-293; 

lack  of  final  evidence,  300 
Radical,  the,  370 
Radium,    discovery    of,    3,    141; 

properties,  4 
Rainfall,   18;   influence  on  plant 

growth,  19 

Rays,  alpha,  4 ;  beta,  4 ;  gamma,  5 
Red  clover,  60 
Reformatory,     inmates     of     the, 

252 

Regression,  law  of,  228 
Reibmayr,  A.,  271,  347,  384 
Reich,   E.,  383-384 
Reid,  G.  A.,  344-345 
Religious     fanaticism,     influence 

on  society,  346 
Reproduction:  cell  division,  194; 

cell   specialization,   192;   germ 

and  body  cells,  contrast,   195; 

growth,  192;   rate  of,  70;   sex 

differences,      196;      stationary 

total,  71 

Research,  methods  of,  148,  191 
Rhythm  of  nature,  47 
Ripley,    W.    Z.,    280,    283,    285, 

290-291 
Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical 

Research,  N.  Y.  C.,  143 
Roosevelt,  T.,  70 
Royal  Observatory  of  Greenwich, 

1 

Rubber,    110;    plants   and   prod- 
ucts, 112 
Russia,   birth    and    death    rates, 

334;   temperature,  16 


Salamanders,     experiments     on, 

224 

San  Jose1  scale,  89 
Santa  Cruz  Valley,  45 
Schallmayer,  W.,  334,  337 
Schamberg,  J.  F.,  183 
Schultz,  A.  P.,  294-295 
Scotland,  population  per  square 

mile,  29 


Seasons,   influence  of,  on   social 

phenomena,  38 

Segregation,  of  "  unfit,"  267 
Selection,  artificial,  natural,  sex- 
ual, 178;  evidences  for,  180 
Semper,  K.,  28 

Semple,  E.  T.,  31,  32,  102,  103 
Sex,  determination  of,  207 
Sex,  human,  differences:  advent 
physical  maturity,  323;  ath- 
letic records,  318;  beginnings 
of,  312;  blood  composition, 
321;  bodily  proportions,  318- 
319,  323;  brain  weights,  320- 
321 ;  differences  do  not  indi- 
cate superiority,  329;  growth 
of  boys  and  girls,  316-317; 
influence  on  daily  life,  326; 
influence  of  menstruation,  323- 
326;  males  and  females  in  U. 
S.,  314;  psychic  phenomena, 
326;  resistance  to  shock,  322; 
secondary  sexual  characters, 
315;  sex  ratios,  313;  stature, 
weight,  317-318;  two  theories 
as  to  role  of  women,  329-330; 
variability,  327-328 
Sex-linked  characters,  209 
Sheep,  crossing  of  Dorset  horned 

with  hornless  Suffolks,  210 
Shelford,  V.  E.,  26,  27,  28,  46, 

57,  59 

Silk  worm,  125 
Sixties  of  Ohio,  266 
Small,  A.  W.,  377-378 
Smallpox,  127,  132 
Smith,  J.  B.,  71,  72,  88,  93 
Smoke,  damage  done  by,  21 
Snakes,  183;   man's  attitude  to- 
ward, 81 
Snow,  moisture  in  form  of,  and 

its  value,  22 
Social    castes,    development    of, 

347 

Social  environment,  357 
Social  institutions,  value,  358 
Society,  influence  of  immigration 


INDEX 


405 


on,  339;  permanency  of,  387; 
progress  of,  through  surgical 
skill  and  medical  knowledge, 
343;  religion  and,  339;  Spen- 
cer's idea  of,  378 

Society  tests:  choice  of  right 
virtues  and  right  crimes,  387 ; 
elimination  of  unfit,  389; 
power  of  readjusting  institu- 
tions and  programs  to  meet 
changing  conditions  of  life, 
390;  protection  afforded,  388; 
training  of  children,  389 

Sociology,  danger  of  applying 
biological  laws,  381;  a  science, 
377 

Soils,  characteristics  and  classi- 
fication, 1 1 ;  meaning  to 
farmer,  13 

Sparrow,  European  house,  90 

Spectroscope,  14 

Spencer,  H.,  378 

Spermatozoon,  192 

Spontaneous  generation,  151 

Standards,  conflict  of  different, 
363 

Stars,  classification,  1 ;  helium- 
gas,  1 ;  metallic,  2 ;  proto- 
hydrogen,  1 ;  protometallic,  2 

Statistical  methods,  228 

Steam  engine,  108 

Steel,  107 

Sterilization,  267 

Stockard,  C.  R.,  221-223 

Struggle  for  existence,  65 

Subnormal  man,  241 

Suicide,  increase  of,  in  civilized 
lands,  348 

Sun,  13 

Superman,  nature  of,  262 

Supernormal  man,  241 

Surface,  M.  A.,  80 

Swine,  122 

Switzerland,  population  per 
square  mile,  29 

Synapsis,  or  conjugation  of 
chromosomes,  196 


Synthetic  chemistry,  110 
Syphilis,  26,  129,  142 

Telescope,  invention  of,  1 

Temperature,  annual  march  of, 
in  continental  and  marine  cli- 
mates, 16;  character  of  vegeta- 
tion determined  by,  15;  dis- 
tribution of  life  determined 
by,  23;  importance  of  jaroper, 
to  conditions  of  life,  7;  in  the 
interior  of  U.  S.,  16;  influence 
on  reproduction,  24;  of  human 
body,  8;  of  ocean,  16;  yearly 
cycle,  45 

Tertiary  age,  184 

Thomas,  W.  I.,  318,  319,  322, 
323,  328,  329 

Thomson,  J.  A.,  56,  60,  61,  63, 
180,  181,  199,  382 

Toad,  82 

Training  of  parents,  and  off- 
spring, effect  on,  218 

Traits,  inherited,  254 

Trees,  value  of,  to  man,  117 

Tropics,  influence  of,  on  white 
men,  33;  plants  in,  15 

Tsetse  fly,  21 

Tuberculosis,  27,  138,  141 

Typhoid,  138 

Typhus,  139 

Unit-characters,  200,  206 
United  States,  reduction  in  corn 

crop,  19 
Use  and  disuse  theory,  168,  217 

Vaccinations,  132 
Vegetation,   character   of,   deter- 
mined by  temperature,  15 

Wales,  birth,  death  and  marriage 
rates,  332;  population  per 
square  mile,  29 

Wallace,  A.  R.,  171 

War,  effect  of,  on  society,  345 

Ward,  L.  F.,  273,  378 


406 


INDEX 


Water,  amount  in  air,  20;  as  aid 
to  plant  growth,  11;  impor- 
tance of,  to  life,  7;  pure,  com- 
position of,  7;  a  solvent,  8; 
source  of  oxygen,  25 

Wealth,  importance  of,  to  civil- 
ization, 360;  surplus,  produc- 
tion of,  101 

Weather  conditions,  comparison 
of,  between  New  York  and 
Denver,  37 

Weeds,  75 

Weeks,  D.  F.,  253,  254 

Weismann,  A.,  203,  215 

Wheat,  yield  of,  19 

Wheel,  invention  of,  99 

Whetham,  W.  C.  D.,  261 

White,  A.  D.,  154-163,  165,  172- 
175,  186-187 


Wild  life,  abundance  of,  in  un- 
populated countries,  66 

Williams,  J.  W.,  130 

Winds,  effects  of,  on  animals  and 
man,  23;  influence  of,  on  cli- 
mate, 17 

Women,  changed  industrial  con- 
ditions, 340;  progress  and 
genius  in,  274 

Woodruff,  C.  W.,  34 

Woods,  F.  A.,  258-262,  271,  272, 
385 

World-making,  process  of,  2 

Yellow  fever,  24,  135,  136 
Zones,  transcontinental  life,  23 
.(D 


000978  150     1 


